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FROM   THE   LIBRARY   OF 
REV.    LOUIS    FITZGERALD    BENSON.   D.  D. 

BEQUEATHED    BY    HIM    TO 

THE   LIBRARY   OF 

PRINCETON   THEOLOGICAL   SEMINARY 


Diriaioa 

Section  SOC, 


HISTOEY 


©frniaii  Bef0nnelt  Cl)iirfl). 


■JOHN  SAHTAnr. THE  CRICINJIL  BTEJCHHOLTZ 


nl^AYE    [^oEol 


.P 


7 


THE  ( "^  MAR  9A  1932 


HISTOllY     ^<l£C|tH 


ifrittan  Mum^  Cljurcl), 

Rev.  lewis   MAYER,  D.D. 

LATE    PROFESSOR    IN   THE    THEOLOGICAL    SEMIN.VKr   OF   THE    GERMAN    REFORMED    CHURCH    IN    TUB 
UNITED   STATES. 


TO   WHICH   IS    PREFIXED 


A  MEMOIR  OF  HIS  LIFE, 


Rev.  ELIAS   HEINER,  A.M. 

MINISTER     OF     THE     FIRST     REFORMED     CONGREGATION     IN     BALTIMORE. 


VOLUME  I. 


SECOND    EDITION. 


PHILADELPHIA: 
PUBLISHED  BY  LIPPINCOTT,  GRAMBO  &  CO. 

SIEREOTTPED   BY   L.  JOHNSON   AND   CO. 

1851. 


Entered  according  to  act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1851,  by 

L1PI'I^•C0TT,  GEAMBO  &  CO., 

in  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  Eastern  District  of  Pennsylvania. 


Printed  ly  T.  K.   S:  P.  G.  Collins. 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

Life  op  Rev.  Dr.  Mayer 1-15 

INTRODUCTION. 

Origin  of  the  title  Reformed  Church. — Huguenots. — Etymology 
of  the  name. — Reformed  Churches  on  the  continent  of 
Europe  not  all  Calvinistic. — Principal  divisions  of  the  Re- 
formed Church. — Distinctive  characteristics  of  the  German 
Reformed  Church,  in  contrast  with  the  Episcopal,  Presby- 
terian, and  Lutheran  Churches. — Mistakes  of  Dr.  Mosheim. — 
Catalogue  of  the  principal  histories  of  the  Reformation. — 
State  of  the  Church  prior  to  the  Reformation. — Corruptions 
among  clergy  and  people. — Blasphemous  assumptions  of 
the  Popes. — Luxury  of  the  hierarchy  and  monastic  orders. — 
Their  superstitious  and  barbarous  aversion  to  the  arts  and 
sciences. — Deplorable  state  of  religious  knowledge. — A  re- 
formation desired  by  the  people  and  their  rulers,  but  demanded 
in  vain  from  the  hierarchy. — The  influence  of  the  revival  of 
learning  in  the  fifteenth  century. — The  Inquisition. — The 
Index  Expurgatorius. — Social  and  political  influence  of  the 
Reformation. — Fundamental  principle  of  the  Reformation,    17-43 


HISTORY  OF  THE  REFORMED  CHURCH  IN  SWITZERLAND. 

BOOK  I. 

CHAPTER  I. 

State  of  Switzerland. — Basel. — Thomas  Wittenbach. — Birth  of 
Zwingle. — Early  education. — Grregorius  Bingli. — Lupulus. — 
Zwingle  becomes  a  teacher  at  the  age  of  eighteen. — Leo 
Juda. — Capito 43-52 


Vi  TABLE   OF   CONTENTS. 

C'lIAlTER  II. 

PAGB 

Zwingle's  ministry  in  GUirus  from  1506-1516. — Ordained  in 
1506. — His  estimate  of  the  pastoral  oflBce. — His  ardent  zeal 
for  Scriptural  knowledge. — Freedom  of  his  inquiry  after 
truth. — His  first  campaign  in  Italy. — Warlike  disposition  of 
the  Swiss.  —  Mercenary  campaigns.  —  Cardinal  Shinner. — 
Zwingle  receives  a  pension  from  the  pope. — A  grand  indul- 
gence proclaimed  by  the  pope  in  Zurich. — Calamity  at  Ra- 
venna.— The  Swiss  aid  the  pope. — Defeat  of  the  French. — 
Disasters  in  Italy. — Zwingle  chaplain  to  the  army. — Opposes 
the  mercenary  system.  —  Poetic  allegories. — Intrigues  of 
Francis  I. — Zwingle  in  Einsiedeln. — His  observations  in 
Italy. — "Wickedness  in  high  places. — The  only  rule  of  faith 
and  duty. — Valentine  Tschudy 52-77 


CHAPTER  III. 

Zwingle's  ministry  in  Einsiedeln. — Miraculous  consecration  of 
a  church. — Shameless  imposture. — Wealth  of  the  convent  at 
Einsiedeln. — Conrad  von  Rechberg. — Theobald  von  Gerold- 
seck. — Zwingle's  studies. — The  Scriptures  in  the  original. — 
He  attacks  the  corruptions  of  papal  doctrine. — Indulgences. — 
The  EiKjelwelhe. — Effects  of  Zwingle's  preaching. — His  first 
principle. — Zwingle  and  Luther. — Theological  opinions  of 
Luther  in  1519. — Justification  by  faith. — Design  of  the  pope 
in  his  flattering  attentions  to  Zwingle. — Cardinal  Pucci. — 
The  two  modes  of  reformation. — Promises  of  the  dignitaries 
of  the  church. — Zwingle's  early  anonymous  publications. — 
Hugo  von  Landenberg. — Sampson,  the  vendor  of  indulgences. 
— Origin  of  the  traSic. — Its  rise  and  progress. — Indignation 
of  Zwingle. — Denounces  indulgences 77-113 


BOOK  II. 

CHAPTER  I.— 1 519-15-25. 

Zwingle  removes  to  Zurich. — Oswald  Mycouius. — The  Great- 
Minster  in  Zurich. — Conrad  Hoffmsn. — Leo  Juda  in  Einsie- 


TABLE    OF   CONTENTS.  Vn 

PAOB 

deln. — Zwingle's  course  of  expository  preaching. — Appear- 
ance of  Luther's  writings  in  Switzerland. — Sampson  in  Zurich. 
— Pope  Leo  sustains  his  emissary. — Image-worship. — Political 
troubles  of  the  Swiss,  growing  out  of  the  mercenary  system. — 
Zwingle's  position. — Intrigues  of  the  bishop  of  Constance. — 
Zwiugle  chosen  a  canon  of  the  chapter. — Studies  Hebrew. — 
His  first  avowed  tract  on  ''  the  Choice  and  the  Freeness  of 
Meats." — Opposed  by  the  mendicant  monks. — Decree  of  the 
general  diet  of  the  confederacy. — Bold  appeal  to  the  bishop 
of  Constance. — Franciscus  Lambert. — The  nuns  of  Oeten- 
bach. — The  meeting  at  Rapperschweil. — Hans  Urban  Weiss. 
— Persecution. — Pope  Adrian  VI. — Public  disputation. — 
Faber. — Visit  of  the  pope's  legate  to  Zurich. — Zwingle's 
sixty-seven  theses. — Imprisonment  of  the  pastor  of  Vislis- 
bach. — Disputation,  January  29,  1523. — Zwingle  sustained 
by  the  council. — Introduces  changes  in  the  ceremonies. — 
Celibacy  falls  into  disrepute. — Institution  of  St.  Felix  and 
Regula  reformed. — Education  of  youth. — Mandate  of  Charles 
V. — The  cross  of  Stadelhofen. — Disputation  on  the  mass  and 
images. — Zwingle  triumphant. — Opposition  of  the  priests. — 
Embassy  of  the  confederate  cantons  to  Zurich. — Execution 
of  Hottinger  for  throwing  down  a  crucifix. — Zwingle's  book 
on  the  pastoral  ofiice. — Embarrassment  of  the  bishop  of  Con- 
stance.—  His  reply  to  the  council  of  Zurich. — Zwingle's 
rejoinder. — Prudent  measures  for  the  abolition  of  image-wor- 
ship.— Rage  of  the  Papist  cantons. — Clement  VII. — Embassy 
from  ten  cantons. — John  Oechslein,  or  Taureolus. — Burning 
of  the  convent  at  Stammheim  and  the  wooden  images. — John 
Wirt  and  his  son  executed. — Embassy  from  Zurich  to  Luzern. 
— Disputation  proposed  by  the  popish  cantons. — John  Eckius. 
— The  Romish  champions  invited  to  Zurich  or  Baden. — Pro- 
posed reformation  of  the  clergy  accepted  by  Bern. — Convents 
disbanded 118-198 

CHAPTER  II. 

Insurrections  of  the  peasantry. — The  Anabaptists. — Thomas 
Munzer. — Extravagances  of  the  new  sect. — Defeat  of  the 
peasantry  and  death  of  Munzer. — Progress  of  the  Anabaptists 


viii  TABLE   OF   CONTENTS. 

PAOE 

ia  Switzerland.— Fanaticism. — Penal  enactments. — Confer- 
ences.—Felix  Mantz  put  to  death  by  drowning.— Cruel 
severities  increased. — Zwingle's  book  on  baptism. — Tragic 
event  on  the  Miilegg. — BuUinger's  account  of  the  tenets  of 
the  Anabaptists 198-228 

CHAPTER  ni. 

Progress  of  the  Reformation  in  Zurich. — Cochlaeus. — Pope 
Clement  VII.'s  address  to  the  Zurichers. — Valentine  Corn- 
par. — Apology  of  the  Zurichers. — Establishment  of  a  public 
almonry. — The  Ehegericht. — Theological  seminary  in  Zurich. 
Zwingle  as  a  teacher  of  theology. — Translation  of  the  Scrip- 
tures.— Zwingle's  work  on  true  and  false  religion. — Original 
sin  and  the  Lord's  supper 228-246 

CHAPTER  IV. 

Controversy  on  the  Lord's  supper. — Various  theories.— Tran- 
substantiation. — Consubstantiation. — Andrew  Bodenstein,  or 
Carlstadt. — Excesses  of  Carlstadt  and  his  coadjutors. — Luther 
and  Carlstadt. — Capito  and  Bucer. — The  Strasburg  divines. — 
Luther's  address  to  the  Christians  at  Strasburg. — Zwingle's 
view  assailed  by  John  Bugenhagen,  or  Pomeranus ;  defended 
by  John  Oecolampadius,  or  Hausschein. — The  Syngramma. — 
"  Anti-syngramma/'  by  Oecolampadius. — Pirkheimer. — Bu- 
cer's  irenical  efforts. — Brentz. — Zwingle's  "  Plain  Instruction 
on  the  Lord's  Supper. " — Luther's  vehemence 246-308 

CHAPTER  V. 

Abolition  of  the  mass  in  Zurich. — Am  Griit. — Zwingle's  dream. 
— Celebration  of  the  Lord's  supper. — Deacons. — Protest  of  six 
cantons. — Answer  of  the  council. — Zurich  forsaken. — In- 
trigues of  Charles  V.  and  Clement  VII. — Rome  sacked  by 
the  imperialists. — Zurich  demands  payment  from  the  pope. — 
The  hostile  cantons  propose  another  disputation  at  Baden  or 
Luzern. — John  Eck. — Embassy  from  Bern  to  Zurich. — Reply 
of  the  Zurichers. — Festival-days 308-340 


TABLE    OF    CONTENTS.  IX 

BOOK  III. 
CHAPTER  I. 


PAQB 


Basel.  —  Erasmus.  —  Capito.  — Wittenbach.  —  Caspar  Hedio. — 
William  Roubli.  —  Oecolampadius. — Conrad  Pellicanus. — 
Mandate  of  the  council  of  Basel. — The  Scriptures  the  final 
judge  of  controversy 340-351 

CHAPTER  n. 

Constance. — Jacob  Windner  and  Bartholomew  Metzler. — Anto- 
nius  Pirata  and  Goldin. — Ambrose  Blarer. — Sebastian  Hoff- 
meister. — Luther  excommunicated. — Wanner's  preaching. — 
Faber  and  the  deputation  to  Zurich. — Conspiracy  to  abduct 
Wanner. — Hugo,  bishop  of  Constance. — Address  to  the  coun- 
cil.— Answer  of  the  council. — Spread  of  the  Reformation. — 
Decay  of  episcopal  authority. — Appeal  to  the  pope. — Papal 
manifestos. — Attempt  to  enforce  the  episcopal  jurisdiction. — 
Citation  of  Bartholomew  Metzler. — Metzler  sustained  by  the 
council. — Appeal  to  Ferdinand,  archduke  of  Austria. — Aus- 
trian deputation. — Answer  of  the  council. — Failure  to  obtain 
penal  enactments  against  Wanner  and  Metzler 351-379 

CHAPTER  III. 

Reformation  in  Bern. — Berthold  Haller. — Sebastian  Meyer. — 
Bartholomew  Mey  and  his  sons,  Wolfgang  and  Claudius. — 
The  bishop  of  Lausanne. — George  Brunner  accused. — Sus- 
tained by  the  council. — The  bishop  of  Lausanne  forbidden  to 
hold  an  episcopal  visitation. — Decree  of  the  lesser  council. — 
Reformers  strengthened. — The  convents. — Nunnery  at  Kb- 
nigsfelden. — The  nuns  abandon  th«ir  vows. — Marriage. — 
Decree  against  married  priests. — John  Heim. — Marriage  of 
Nicolas  von  Wattenweil 379-396 

CHAPTER  IV. 

Reformation  in  Strasburg. — Matthew  Zell. — His  citation. — 
Supported  by  influential  citizens. — Martin  Bucer. — Francis 
von  Sickingen. — Marriage  of  Antonius  Firnius. — Rage  of  the 
Papists. — Marriage  of  Zell. — Lewis  Rabus. — Decay  of  celi- 

6 


X  TABLE   OF   CONTENTS. 

PAQE 

bacy. — Married  priests  cited  by  the  bishop,  but  protected  by 
the  council. — Demand  of  Canipegius,  the  pope's  nuncio. — 
Decree  of  the  council.— Opening  of  public  schools. — Monas- 
tics permitted  to  leave  their  convents.— Conrad  Trbger  and 
Thomas  Murner.— Madame  Zellius 396-407 

BOOK  III.— Section  II. 

CHAPTER  I. 

The  Reformation  in  Schaffhausen. — Hoffman  and  Hoffmeister. — 
Erasmus  Ritter. — The  festival  of  Christ's  entry  into  Jerusa- 
lem.— Degrading  superstition. — The  abbot  Michael  surren- 
ders his  convent. — Embassy  from  the  confederates. — Meats 
on  fast-days. — Demolition  of  images. — Bishop  Hugo  of  Con- 
stance and  Pope  Clement  VII. — Refusal  of  an  entire  guild 
to  take  the  oath  of  allegiance  unless  image-worship  were 
abolished. — The  Anabaptists 407-415 

CHAPTER  II. 

Reformation  in  Grlarus. — Zwingle. — Valentine  Tschudy,  Fridolin 
Brunner  and  Jacob  Vogel. — Persecution  of  Brunner. — Mar- 
riage of  Tschudy. — Decree  of  the  landgemeine 415-418 

CHAPTER  III. 

The  reformation  in  Scbweitz,  Zug,  Luzern,  &c. — Balthasar 
Trachsel. — Jodocus  Miiller. — Stciner  and  Stocker. — Banish- 
ment of  Steiner. — Myconius  in  Luzern. — Kilchmeyer  and 
Zimmerman. — Henry  Loritt. — Conrad  Schmid  and  the  anni- 
versary of  the  conflagration. — Elopement  of  a  priest  with  the 
wife  of  a  citizen. — Persecution  of  Kilchmeyer. — John  Van- 
nius,  John  Kother,  and  Peter  Fulk  in  Friburg.— Macrinus. 
— Indiscreet  zeal  of  new  converts 418-427 

BOOK  III.— Section  III. 

CHAPTER  I. 
The  reformation  in  St.  Gall. — Joachim  von  Waat,  or  Vadianus. 
— Benedict  Burgauer  and  Wolfgang  Wetter. — John  Kessler. 


TABLE    OF    CONTENTS.  XI 

PAQK 

— Decree  of  the  council  iu  favor  of  the  Reformation. — The 
Anabaptists. — The  monk  Ulmau  and  Conrad  Grebel. — Kriisi 
burned  at  Luzern 427-432 

CHAPTER  II. 

The  reformation  in  Appenzell. — Jacob  Sheuertanner. — Twenty- 
sis  piiests  espouse  the  doctrines  of  the  Reformation. — Theo- 
bald Huter. — John  Hess  and  Ulric  Urnesh. — Papist  violence 
against  Hess. — Embassy  to  remonstrate  against  the  Reform- 
ation fails. — Walter  Klarer. — The  Anabaptists 432-437 

CHAPTER  in. 

The  reformation  in  Thurgau,  &c. — The  convent  of  Danikon,  or 
Tenikon. — The  mass-. — Ineffectual  opposition  to  the  Reforma- 
tion.— The  nuns  of  Miinsterlingen. — The  lord  of  Tokken- 
burg. — Decree  of  the  landrath  of  Schweitz  against  Zwingle 
and  Luther. — Jacob  Russinger 437-443 

CHAPTER  IV. 

The  reformation  in  the  Grisons. — Jacob  Biirkli. — Biveronius. — 
John  Comander. — Philip  Galitius. — Conspiracy  against  Co- 
mander. — Triumph  of  Comander  in  public  disputation...  443-^51 

BOOK  III.— Section  IV. 

CHAPTER  I. 

The  reformation  in  Miihlhausen. — Jacob  Augsberger,  Otho 
Binder,  Bernard  Roemer. — The  Lord's  supper.  —  Celi- 
bacy   451-453 

CHAPTER  II. 

The  reformation  in  Bienne,  or  Biel. — Wittenbach. — Celibacy. — 
Apology  of  Wittenbach. — Removed  from  the  pastorship. — 
Memorial  of  the  people  to  the  government. — The  diet  at 
Luzern. — Appeal  to  Bern. — Violent  religious  disputes. — 
Death  of  Wittenbach 453-461 


PREFACE. 


One  of  the  greatest  events  which  ever  occurred  among 
mankind,  was  the  Reformation  at  the  commencement  of 
the  sixteenth  century.  For  a  long  time,  the  grossest  abuses, 
both  in  Church  and  State,  had  everywhere  prevailed.  The 
pope  had  audaciously  assumed  the  supremacy  belonging  to 
Deity  himself,  in  spiritual  matters ;  and  now  he  assumed 
the  supremacy  in  worldly  matters  also,  giving  the  kingdoms 
of  the  earth,  far  and  near,  to  whom  he  pleased.  This  com- 
pleted in  his  person  the  character  of  "Antichrist,  sitting 
in  the  temple  of  God,  and  showing  himself  as  God."  To 
such  lengths  in  blasphemy  and  wickedness  did  he  proceed, 
that  he  sold  indulgences  to  sin.  Making  use  of  the  power 
which  his  predecessors  had  usurped  over  all  Christian 
churches,  he  sent  abroad,  into  all  kingdoms,  his  letters 
and  bulls,  with  ample  promises  of  the  full  pardon  of  sin 
and  eternal  salvation  to  such  as  would  purchase  the  same 
with  money.  The  cup  of  his  iniquity  was  now  full.  God 
raised  up  Ulrick  Zwingle  and  Martin  Luther,  to  check 
the  Man  of  Sin  in  his  impious  course,  and  to  beat  back 
the  fearful  tides  of  corruption  which  were  now  sweeping 
over  the  earth  and  deluging  the  church.  Enlightened  by 
the   word   and   Spirit   of  God,   they  began   to   cleanse   the 


xiv  PREFACE. 

church  from  the  pollutions  and  abuses  of  popery,  and  to 
spread  abroad  among  the  people  the  blessed  knowledge 
of  the  word  of  God.  As  the  truth  spread  far  and  wide, 
tens  of  thousands  were  subdued  by  its  power,  and  whole 
churches,  and  whole  communities,  and,  at  length,  whole 
nations,  aw^oke  from  their  long  spiritual  sleep,  and  were 
led  to  rejoice  in  the  great  salvation  of  the  Scriptures. 
The  event  of  the  Refoi'mation  produced  a  new  and  glo- 
rious era  in  the  church  and  in  the  world,  and  its  benefi- 
cial results  will  be  felt  by  mankind,  to  the  latest  age. 
Whoever,  therefore,  largely  contributes  to  the  better  un- 
derstanding of  its  origin  and  progress,  may  be  regarded 
as  a  benefactor  of  his  race. 

The  volume  which  is  herewith  offered  to  the  public  is  a  com- 
plete and  an  ably  written  history  of  the  Reformation  in  Swit- 
zerland, the  birthplace  of  the  church,  as  reformed  by 
Zwingle  and  his  able  coadjutors.  It  is  generally  known 
that  the  reverend  author  was  engaged  in  writing  the 
history  of  the  German  Reformed  Church,  and  that  the 
first  volume,  embracing  the  origin  and  progress  of  this 
church, — and,  incidentally,  of  the  Lutheran,  Dutch  Reformed, 
and  Presbyterian  churches  also, — Avas  ready  for  the  press. 
For  some  years,  this  important  work  has  been  anxiously 
expected.  Except  D'Aubigne  and  Ebrard,  no  church 
historian,  it  is  believed,  has  done  justice  to  the  noble 
Swiss  reformers,  and  to  the  people  whom  they  converted, 
under  God,  from  the  abominations  of  popery,  and  orga- 
nized into  comparatively  pure  Christian  churches.  Neither 
their  character  nor  work  seems  to  have  been  properly  un- 
derstood. The  want  of  a  good  history  of  the  German 
Reformed  Church,  in  the  English  language,  has  long  been 


PREFACE.  XV 

felt;  and  it  is,  therefore,  gratifying  to  know  that  the  work 
before  us  is  supposed  to  answer  well  the  demand  in  ques- 
tion. Among  other  things  of  interest  and  importance,  it 
does  ample  justice  to  Zwingle,  Bullinger,  OEcolampa- 
Dius,  BucER,  and,  indeed,  to  all  the  great  and  distin- 
guished men  who  originated,  and  carried  on  with  so  much 
ability  and  success,  the  glorious  reformation  in  SMutzer- 
land.  At  the  same  time,  it  does  full  justice  to  Luther, 
Melancthon,  Calvin,  and  others,  in  its  notices  of  the 
reformation  in  Germany,  France,  and  other  countries.  All 
denominations  of  Christians,  but  especially  the  churches 
of  the  Reformation,  will  read  this  work,  it  is  believed, 
with  pleasure  and  profit.  The  high  origin  and  deeply  in- 
teresting history  of  the  German  Reformed  Church  are 
here  brought  fully  and  clearly  to  the  view  and  conscious- 
ness of  the  reader. 

The  second  volume  of  the  work,  designed  to  embrace 
the  history  of  the  German  Reformed  Church  in  the  United 
States,  is  not  fully  written  out,  and  will  have  to  be  com- 
pleted by  another  hand.  Much  time  and  great  labor  have 
been  expended  on  it,  and  the  history,  making  thus  far 
perhaps  three  hundred  pages,  comes  down  to  about  the 
year  1770.  A  great  portion  of  the  material  'for  the 
remainder  is  collected,  and  partly  arranged.  The  Synod 
of  the  German  Reformed  Church,  at  its  late  meeting  in 
Martinsburg,  Virginia,  recommended  the  completion  of  this 
volume,  and  also  the  publication  of  the  one  now  offered 
to  the  public. 

The  author  was  not  permitted,  in  the  order  of  Provi- 
dence, to  witness  the  publication  of  the  work,  upon  which 
the   last  years  of  his   useful   life   were   expended,    but   his 


Xvi  PREFACE. 

own  memory  is  embalmed  in  the  annals  of  the  German 
Reformed  Church.  Whilst  he  rests  from  his  labors,  the 
influence  of  his  work  will  be  perpetuated  by  this  valuable 
contribution  to  the  history  of  the  church  which  he  loved 
and  served  during  a  long  life  devoted  with  patient  self- 
denial  to  its  best  interests,  and  to  which,  in  death,  he 
has  bequeathed  a  legacy  that  will  be  appreciated  by  all 
candid  Christians. 

S.  R. 

Baltimore,  April  8th,  1851. 


LIFE  OF  REV.  DR.  MAYER. 


Lewis  Mayer  was  born  at  Lancaster,  Pennsylvania, 
on  the  26th  of  March,  1783.  His  father  was  George 
L.  Mayer,  of  that  place,  a  gentleman  of  liberal  educa- 
tion. He  was  one  of  several  children  by  a  second 
marriage.  His  brother.  Colonel  George  Mayer,  is  the 
only  one  still  living,  and  is  one  of  the  oldest  and  most 
respectable  merchants  in  Lancaster. 

Mr.  Mayer's  early  education  Avas  received  at  Lan- 
caster, the  place  of  his  birth,  partly  under  the  direction 
of  his  father.  He  applied  himself  very  closely  to  his 
studies  in  general,  but  gave  particular  attention  to  the 
study  of  the  German  language  and  some  eminent  German 
authors.  After  receiving  a  respectable  German  and  Eng- 
lish education  at  Lancaster,  he  determined  to  leave  the 
place  of  his  birth,  and  locate  in  Fredericktown,  Maryland. 
In  this  place,  he  engaged  for  a  short  time  in  a  secular 
caUiug ;  but,  having  a  taste  much  better  suited  to  hooJcs 
than  business,  he  did  not  succeed  to  any  considerable 
extent.  His  mind  was  chiefly  occupied  with  reading 
and  study,  and  it  was  thus  engaged  when  he  was 
awakened  under  the  preaching  of  the  pious  and  excellent 
Wagner,  then  pastor  of  the  Reformed  Church  at  Frede- 
rick .  His  convictions  of  sin  were  unusually  deep  and  pun- 
gent. He  clearly  saw  his  lost  and  helpless  condition  as  a 
sinner,  and  felt  himself  exposed  to  the  awful  wrath  of 
God.  He  was  completely  overwhelmed  with  a  sense 
of  sin,  and  could  find  no  peace,  day  nor  night.     The 


2  LIFE   OF   EEV.  DR.  MAYER. 

season  through  which  he  passed  before  he  could  exer- 
cise faith  and  hope  in  the  Redeemer  as  his  Redeemer, 
was  indeed  one  of  fearful  darkness.  He  stood,  at 
times,  on  the  very  borders  of  despair,  and  almost  gave 
himself  up  as  lost.  But,  having  been  once  brought  out 
of  darkness  into  the  sweet  light  of  the  gospel,  and 
having  been  led  by  the  Spirit  to  hope  and  trust  in 
Christ  as  his  Saviour,  he  soon  became  a  firmly  esta- 
blished Christian,  and  found  his  chief  delight  in  looking 
to  the  Redeemer,  and  in  being  engaged  in  his  service. 
He  has  often  spoken  to  the  writer  and  others,  with 
great  pleasure  and  interest,  of  the  kind  and  valuable 
services  rendered  him  by  father  Wagner,  in  his  deep 
spiritual  conflicts,  and  in  preparing  him  for  the  high 
and  holy  Avork  of  the  Christian  ministry. 

Not  long  after  his  conversion,  Mr.  Mayer's  mind  was 
impressed  with  the  idea  that  he  was  called  of  God  to 
preach  the  Gospel,  but  some  considerable  time  elapsed 
before  he  became  fully  satisfied  that  God  had  indeed 
called  him  to  the  ministry  of  reconciliation.  And  this 
assurance  of  a  divine  call  to  the  Christian  ministry  was 
not  obtained  without  another  painful  struggle.  He  had 
conflict  after  conflict,  and  it  was  only  after  great  de- 
liberation and  much  earnest  prayer,  that  his  mind  rested 
in  a  calm  and  full  persuasion  that  he  was  called  of  God 
to  be  an  ambassador  for  Christ. 

Possessing  a  high  order  of  native  talent,  and  a  mind 
already  accustomed  to  deep  thought  and  earnest  inquiry, 
he  made  easy  and  rapid  progress  in  all  his  classical  and 
theological  studies;  and,  having  completed  the  pre- 
scribed course  of  study,  he  was  licensed,  in  1807, 
(being  then  in  his  twenty-fourth  year,)  by  the  Reformed 
Synod,  which  met  that  year  at  New  Holland,  Lancaster 
County,  Pennsylvania,  to  preach  the  gospel.  His  classical 
studies  were  mainly  pursued  under  the  direction  of  the 


LIFE    OP    REV.  DR.  MAYER.  O 

principal  of  Fredciicktowu  College,  uuJ  his  preparation 
for  the  ministry  was  made  under  the  tuition  of  the 
Rev.  Mr.  Wagxer,  Reformed  pastor  at  Frederick ;  and 
of  this  learned  and  excellent  father,  who  has  long 
since  rested  from  his  labors,  he  always  spoke  in  terms 
of  very  high  regard  and  sincere  affection.  How,  or 
where,  Mr.  Mayer  spent  the  first  year  after  his  licen- 
sure, is  not  exactly  known ;  but  it  is  believed  that  he 
was  employed  in  preaching  occasionally  at  Frederick, 
and  some  other  places  in  the  vicinity. 

In  1808,  he  accepted  a  call  from  the  Shepherds- 
town  charge,  which  at  that  time  was  composed  of  the 
Shepherdstown,  Martinsburg,  and  Smithfield  congre- 
gations. In  this  wide  and  interesting  field,  he  la- 
bored, with  great  acceptance  and  success,  for  more 
than  twelve  years.  Deeply  imbued  with  the  spirit 
of  his  Master,  he  went  about  doing  good.  His  pulpit 
ministrations,  catechetical  instructions,  and  pastoral 
visitations  were  all  highly  acceptable  to  the  people  of 
his  charge,  and  were  greatly  blessed  of  God,  to  the 
conversion  and  edification  of  many  souls.  He  was  re- 
spected and  beloved  by  all  who  knew  him,  and  it  was 
mainly  through  his  agency  that  a  new  life  was  brought 
into  that  part  of  the  Reformed  Church,  and  which  to 
this  day  is  diffusing  itself,  like  holy  leaven,  more  and 
more.  The  few  members  of  that  charge  still  living, 
and  who  enjoyed  the  privilege  of  sitting  under  his 
ministry,  often  speak  of  him  with  much  affection,  and 
delight  in  relating  the  wonderful  things  which  God  did 
through  him  in  the  midst  of  them.  He  received  caUs  else- 
where, and  to  prominent  points,  but  he  declined  them. 

When,  in  1810,  Mr.  Wagner,  in  consequence  of  im- 
paired and  declining  health,  resigned  the  Frederick 
charge  and  removed  to  York,  that  congregation,  through 
its  consistory,  intimated  their  unanimous  wish  to  Mr. 


4  LIFE  OP  REV.  DR.  MAYER. 

M.,  that  he  should  become  their  pastor ;  but,  as  he  de- 
clined accepting,  a  formal  call  was  not  presented.  On 
Mr.  Wagxer's  death,  he  was  requested  to  preach  a 
funeral  sermon  at  Frederick,  and  complied  with  the 
request  in  January,  1811.  The  sermon  was  published 
by  the  congregation,  and  is,  it  is  believed,  the  first 
publication  that  emanated  from  his  pen.  It  was  de- 
livered before  a  very  crowded  audience,  and  was  spoken 
of  as  such  an  eulogium  as  Timothy  might  be  supposed 
to  have  pronounced  on  the  personal  and  ministerial 
character  of  St.  Paul.  The  impression  it  made  re- 
vived the  desire  of  the  congregation  to  secure  his 
services,  but  he  would  not  permit  himself  to  be  put  in 
nomination. 

It  was  during  his  ministry  at  Shepherdstown,  that 
the  First  Reformed  Church  in  Baltimore  also  made  an 
effort  to  secure  his  services,  but  without  success.  He 
accepted  an  invitation,  indeed,  soon  after  the  death  of 
the  Rev.  Dr.  Becker,  which  occurred  in  1818,  to  preach 
to  this  congregation,  and  was  the  first  minister  that 
preached  a  discourse  in  English  in  the  Second-street 
Church.  That  first  English  sermon  did  not  fail  to  make 
a  very  deep  and  powerful  impression.  The  occasion 
was  one  of  high  excitement,  and  the  question  to  be  settled 
was,  whether  English  preaching  should  be  allowed.  The 
preacher,  though  threatened  with  violence  if  he  at- 
tempted to  preach  in  the  English  language,  stood  firm 
and  unmoved,  and  delivered  a  discourse  of  singular 
ability  and  appropriateness.  In  the  course  of  a  few 
weeks,  the  congregation  unanimously  called  him  to  be- 
come their  pastor ;  but,  for  reasons  satisfactory  to  his 
own  mind  at  least,  he  respectfully  declined  the  call. 

Mr.  Mayer  continued  to  labor  in  the  Shepherds- 
town  charge,  until  some  time  in  the  year  1821,  when 
he  was  induced  to  accept  a  call  from  the  Reformed 


LIFE    OF   REV.  DR.  MATER.  5 

Church,  in  York,  Pennsylvania.  Among  this  x^eople 
he  labored  with  like  acceptance  and  success,  until  he 
was  called  by  the  Synod  to  preside  over  the  Theo- 
logical Seminary  of  the  German  Reformed  Church. 
For  years,  the  Church  had  felt  the  importance  of  esta- 
blishing a  school  for  the  more  thorough  preparation  of 
pious  and  gifted  young  men  for  the  work  of  the 
ministry,  and  among  the  foremost  and  most  active  of 
her  ministers  in  planting  the  much  desired  institution, 
was  the  subject  of  this  notice.  During  his  residence 
at  Shepherdstown,  he  gave  the  subject  his  earnest  at- 
tention, and  for  a  long  time  it  occui3ied  his  mind,  and 
elicited  his  prayers  and  efforts.  Enjoying  the  respect 
and  confidence  of  the  Synod  and  of  the  Church,  as  a 
pious,  learned,  and  able  minister,  he  had  it  in  his  power 
to  do  much  towards  the  establishment  of  the  institu- 
tion, and  all  the  influence  he  possessed  was  cheerfully 
exerted  in  its  behalf.  By  correspondence  with  the 
brethren,  as  well  as  by  fervent  appeals  on  the  floor  of 
Synod,  he  urged  the  importance  of  the  establish- 
ment of  a  Theological  Seminary,  and  at  length  he  had 
the  high  gratification  of  seeing  his  efforts  crowned  with 
success.  His  prayers  were  answered — his  wishes 
realized.  The  Synod,  at  their  session  in  Hagerstown, 
September,  1820,  resolved  to  establish  a  Theological 
School,  and  the  Rev.  Dr.  Milledoller,  of  the  Dutch 
Reformed  Church,  was  unanimously  invited  to  the 
theological  chair.  He,  however,  decHned  the  invi- 
tation, although  strongly  urged  by  Mr.  Mayer  and 
other  influential  divines  in  the  Church,  to  accept 
it.  The  Rev.  Samuel  Helfenstein,  (now  Doctor,)  to 
whom  it  was  then  offered,  also  declined  it ;  and  it 
must  be  admitted  that  the  inducements  to  accept  the 
post  were  not  very  strong,  as,  in  all  new  enterprises 
of  the  kind,  whilst  there  was  much  to  hope  for,  there 


6  LIFE   OF   REV.  DR.  MAYER. 

were  many  difficulties  to  be  encountered.  Mr.  Mayer 
himself  was  finall}'  induced,  through  the  persuasion 
of  leading  ministers  and  members  in  the  Church,  to 
accept  a  call  tendered  him  by  Synod,  althoi^h  he 
was  distrustful  of  his  quahfications  to  discharge  the 
high  duties  of  the  office  to  which  he  had  been  called, 
as  they  differed  so  widely  from  those  to  which  he 
had  been  accustomed.  By  close  apf>lication,  however, 
to  study,  he  soon  qualified  himself  for  the  new  duties 
he  was  called  to  perform. 

Having  resigned  the  charge  of  the  York  congrega- 
tion, Mr.  Mayer,  in  obedience  to  the  call  of  Synod, 
moved  his  family  to  Carlisle,  and  in  May,  1825,  com- 
menced operations  in  the  Seminary.  The  number  of 
students  the  first  session  was  only  five,  but  there  was 
a  gradual  increase  from  year  to  year.  The  friends  of 
the  institution  rejoiced  in  the  prospect  which  was  now 
opened  to  the  church  for  something  like  an  adequate 
supply  of  ministers  to  cultivate  her  waste  places,  and 
to  promote  her  various  interests.  The  professor  was 
popular,  and  discharged  his  duties  with  great  fidelity. 
But  the  infant  institution  was  but  poorly  endowed; 
and  this,  in  connection  with  other  circumstances,  which 
need  not  be  mentioned  here,  often  proved  very  embar- 
rassing to  the  incumbent  of  the  theological  chair,  and 
indeed  to  the  Synod  itself.  At  length  it  was  deemed 
advisable  to  remove  the  Seminary  from  Carlisle;  and 
accordingly,  at  the  meeting  of  Synod,  in  Lebanon, 
September,  1829,  it  was  determined  to  take  it  to 
York,  whither  it  was  removed  shortly  after.  During  the 
same  year,  (1829,)  the  college  of  the  Reformed  Dutch 
Church,  located  at  New  Brunswick,  New  Jersey,  con- 
ferred on  Mr.  Mayer  the  honorary  degree  of  Doctor 
of  Divinity. 

The  Seminary  being  now  located  in  a  more  congenial 


LIFE   OF   REV.  DR.  MAYER.  7 

atmosphere,  and  less  embarrassed  than  at  Carlisle,  the 
students  increased  very  fast,  and  things  assumed  a 
much  more  promising  aspect.  A  second  professor  in 
the  Seminary,  Rev.  Mr.  Young,  was  elected,  and  a 
classical  school  was  established,  under  the  direction  of 
Dr.  Rauch,  which,  in  the  course  of  a  few  years,  was 
changed  by  a  State  charter  into  Marshall  College.  The 
first  president  of  this  institution  was  the  lamented 
Rauch.  He  was  also  elected  as  second  professor  in  the 
Theological  Seminary,  after  the  death  of  Mr.  Young. 
During  all  these  changes.  Dr.  Mayer  remained  steadfast 
at  his  post,  until  the  fall  of  1835,  when  the  Synod,  at  its 
meeting  in  Chambersburg  that  year,  determined  to  re- 
move her  institutions  to  Mercersburg,  and  permanently 
locate  them  at  that  place.  Not  choosing  to  follow  the 
Seminary  to  its  place  of  final  destination,  chiefly  on  ac- 
count of  feeble  health,  he  resigned  his  professorship  and 
remained  at  York.  But  in  the  fall  of  1838,  at  the  meet- 
ing of  the  Synod  in  Lancaster,  he  was  again  pressingly 
invited  to  take  charge  of  the  important  situation  made 
vacant  by  his  own  resignation.  This  invitation  he  ac- 
cepted— with  the  understanding,  however,  that  the 
appointment  should  be  considered  only  temporary. 
And  such  it  was.  In  October,  of  the  following  year,  at 
the  meeting  of  the  General  Synod  in  Philadelphia,  Dr. 
Mayer  again  tendered  his  resignation,  which  was  ac- 
cepted. From  that  time  to  the  day  of  his  death  he 
continued  to  reside  in  York,  and  was  engaged,  as  far 
as  his  feeble  health  would  permit,  in  preparing  several 
important  works  for  the  press. 

GENERAL  ESTIMATE  OF  HIS  CHARACTER  AND  ABILITIES. 

As    a  preacher,  Dr.  Mayer  was  learned,  able,  and 
faithful.     His  sermons  were  well  studied.     He  ahvays 


8  LIFE   OF   REV.  DR.  MAYER. 

considered  it  due  to  his  congregration,  as  well  as  to 
himself,  that  his  preparation  lor  the  pulpit  should  be 
the  best  he  could  make.  In  the  early  part  of  his 
ministry,  it  was  his  custom  to  write  and  commit  his 
sermons  to  memory ;  but  in  later  years,  his  discourses 
were  studied  and  preached  "without  being  first  written. 
His  preaching  generally  was  plain  and  practical,  solemn 
and  impressive.  In  the  delivery  of  his  sermons  he  was 
measured,  earnest,  and  always  very  serious.  His  style 
was  clear,  chaste,  popular, — often  argumentative,  and 
sometimes  powerful.  Possessing  a  remarkably  clear 
and  correct  mind,  he  was  peculiarly  happy  in  his 
explancdions  of  the  Bible,  and  in  setting  forth  the  true 
sense  of  Scripture.  He  had  a  taste  for  lecturing,  and 
his  expositions  of  the  sacred  text  were  generally  very 
clear,  forcible,  and  able.  The  writer  remembers,  that 
when  he  was  a  student  at  the  Seminary  in  York,  a  noted 
Universalist  preacher,  Mr.  T.  F.,  from  the  eastward,  visi- 
ted the  place,  and  preached  several  sermons  in  the  court- 
house, to  large  audiences.  As  some  appeared  to  be  carried 
away  with  the  new  and  strange  doctrine,  which  Mr. 
F.  set  forth  in  a  most  eloquent  and  attractive  style, 
the  students  of  the  Seminary  requested  their  professor 
to  deliver  a  discourse  in  the  Reformed  Church,  on  the 
subject  of  universal  salvation.  He  cheerfully  com- 
plied, and  selected  as  his  text  the  parable  of  the  tares, 
and  so  ably  and  convincingly  did  he  discuss  the  subject, 
that  Mr.  F.  himself  seemed  half  convinced  of  the  truth. 
On  leaving  the  Church,  he  remarked  to  a  friend  of  the 
writer,  that  that  was  the  most  clear  and  forcible  ex- 
position of  the  parable  he  had  ever  heard,  and  pro- 
nounced the  discourse  one  of  uncommon  ability  and 
power.  The  few  who  at  first  appeared  somewhat  taken 
with  the  novelties  of  Universalism  were  now  re-esta- 
blished in  their  faith,  and  Mr.  F.  did  not  fail  to  take 


LIFE    OF   REV.  DR.  MAYER.  9 

the  first  stage  that  left  for  Philadelphia.  So  higli  an 
opinion,  also,  had  the  Rev.  Dr.  Cathcart,  of  York,  of 
the  abilities  of  Dr.  Mayer,  as  an  expounder  of  the 
sacred  volume, — for  many  years  himself  one  of  the 
most  able  lecturers  on  the  Bible  in  the  Presbyterian 
Church, — that,  after  preaching,  as  he  did  occasionally 
on  Sabbath  afternoon,  to  a  country  congregation  some 
fifteen  miles  distant,  he  would  return  home  to  attend 
Dr.  M.'s  lecture,  in  the  Reformed  Church  at  night,  on 
the  holy  Scriptures.  This  venerable  and  learned  divine 
once  observed  to  a  friend,  that  he  considered  Dr.  Mayer 
one  of  the  ablest  theologians  in  this  country ;  and  this 
was  the  judgment  of  one  who  knew  him  long  and  in- 
timately, and  who  was  therefore  well  qualified  to  form 
a  correct  opinion  of  his  learning  and  abilities.  Dr. 
Mayer  was  indeed  "  mighty  in  the  Scriptures,"  and  it 
might  be  expected,  therefore,  that  his  preaching  would 
be  of  no  ordinary  character.  But  he  was  as  faithful 
as  he  was  able.  He  never  shunned  to  "declare  the 
whole  counsel  of  God."  Regarding  himself  as  an 
ambassador  for  God,  in  Christ's  stead,  and  feeling  the 
tremendous  responsibility  of  his  high  and  holy  oflice, 
"  he  lifted  up  his  voice,  cried  aloud,  and  spared  not." 
To  saint  and  sinner,  he  preached  as  one  who  felt  he  must 
give  account,  and  as  one  on  whose  faithfulness  depended, 
in  a  very  great  measure,  the  salvation  of  those  who 
heard  him.  The  weight  of  precious  souls  was  upon 
him,  and  he  labored  prayerfully  and  diligently,  both  in 
season  and  out  of  season,  that  they  might  be  saved. 

As  a  2mstor,  Dr.  Mayer  is  said  to  have  been  unsur-  '• 
passed.  There  were  none  more  tender,  more  affec- 
tionate,— none  who  better  understood  how  to  direct  the 
penitent;  to  encourage  the  believer;  to  reclaim  the 
wanderer ;  to  impart  comfort  to  the  tempted,  the  be- 
reaved, the  afilicted,  and  to  build  up  the  Christian  in 


10  LIFE   OF   REV.  DR.  MAYER. 

the  faith  and  knowledge  of  the  Gospel.  His  own  soul 
had  felt  so  much  of  the  preciousness  of  Christ  and  his 
great  salvation,  that  he  well  knew  how  to  impart  to 
others  the  blessed  consolations  of  Christianity.  One  who 
had  himself,  in  his  early  experience,  drunk  so  deeply 
of  the  cup  of  sorrow,  and  who  had,  in  the  hour  of 
anguish  and  day  of  trouble,  found  peace  in  believing, 
and  comfort  in  reposing  himself  on  the  bosom  of  Jesus, 
might  well  be  supposed  to  be  acquainted  with  the 
sources  of  relief,  and  to  understand  how  to  open  the 
broad  and  deep  channels  of  spiritual  consolation  to  the 
broken-hearted  and  distressed.  "  He  was," — says  one 
who  knew  him  long  and  well,  and  who  was  once  a  lead- 
ing elder  in  one  of  his  congregations,  but  now  a  promi- 
nent pastor  in  the  Reformed  Church, — "  He  was  always 
gi'eatly  admired  and  much  beloved  as  a  pastor.  In  the 
discharge  of  the  various  duties  of  the  pastoral  office, 
none  could  surpass  Mm.  In  the  sick-chamber,  and  in 
the  house  of  mourning,  and  in  the  afflicted  family  circle, 
there  were  none  more  welcome,  none  more  useful." 
Feeble  health  and  other  causes  often  prevented  him 
from  giving  such  attention  to  pastoral  visitation  as  he 
desired  to  give;  yet  still  he  performed  a  large  amount 
of  pastoral  labor,  in  visiting  the  sick,  in  instructing 
the  young,  in  comforting  and  edifying  his  flock,  and  in 
giving  attention  to  the  various  and  important  interests 
of  his  charge. 

As  a  professor,  Dr.  Mayer  was  eminently  competent. 
For  some  thirteen  years,  he  was  professor  of  Theology 
in  the  Seminary  of  the  Reformed  Church ;  and  during 
a  part  of  that  time  he  also  gave  instruction  in  the 
Hebrew  language  and  Church  History.  And  it  will 
be  conceded  on  all  sides,  that  he  discharged  the  duties 
of  that  high  and  responsible  office  with  great  ability 
and  fidelity.     Dr.  Mayer,  like  many  distinguished  men 


LIFE   OF   REV.  DR.  M-W^ER.  11 

of  our  country,  was  chiefly  indebted  to  his  own  un- 
tiring industry  for  his  ripe  scholarship.     He  was  an 
excellent  linguist,  and  his   acquaintance  with  various 
systems    of   philosophy   and   theology,   both   in   this 
country  and  in  Europe — in  Germany  especially — was 
very  extensive.     His  mind  was  peculiarly  adapted  to 
the    study  of  biblical   antiquities,  hermeneutics,  exe- 
gesis,   and    didatic,    polemic,    and   pastoral   theology. 
In  these  studies   he  excelled — particularly  theology. 
Few,  perhaps,  could  surpass  him  in  sermonizing,  and  in 
preparing  or  dictating  sJceletons  of  sermons.     Possessing 
a  thoroughly  disciplined  and  very  accurate  mind,  and 
apparently  at  home  in  every  department  of  the  Holy 
Scriptures — conversant  with  the  various  scopes  of  the 
sacred  authors,   and  the   meaning  to  be  attached   to 
the  words  they  used — it  was  comparatively  an  easy 
thing  for  him  to  dictate  a  good  skeleton  from  the  im- 
pulse of  the  occasion.     If  a  skeleton   prepared  and 
read  by  a  student  did  not  please  him,  he  would  remodel 
it  at  once;  and  if  it  were  too  far  out  of  the  way,  he 
would  lay  it  aside  altogether,  and  dictate  another  for 
him  at  the  time.     It  was  the  custom  of  the  class  to 
write  down  the  skeletons  thus  dictated,  and  in  this  way 
many  of  them  have  been  preserved.     To  his  class  he 
always  seemed  well  prepared  on  the  recitation,  and  per- 
fectly at  home  on  all  the  subjects  claiming  attention. 
He  "  studied  to  show  himself  approved  unto  God,  a 
workman   that   needed    not   to   be    ashamed,   rightly 
dividing  the  word  of  truth."     On  subjects  connected 
with  personal  piety  he  would  frequently  speak  to  the 
students,  and  embraced  every  fitting  opportunity  to 
give  them  counsel,  and  to  urge  upon  them  the  import- 
ance of  a  prayerful  and  holy  life. 

Dr.  Mayer   was    known   as    a   scholar,   zvriter,  and 
author.     He  was  a  close  and  earnest  student;  a  deep 


12  LIFE   OF   REV.  DR.  MAYER. 

and  correct  thinker;  a  ripe  and  finished  theological 
scholar,  and  a  clear  and  extensive  writer.  For  a  long 
time,  he  edited,  with  great  acceptance,  the  Magazine  and 
Messenger  of  the  German  Reformed  Church,  and  oc- 
casionally furnished  very  ably  written  articles  for  some 
of  the  leading  theological  reviews  at  the  North.  Among 
his  published  works  are  those  on  the  Sin  against  the 
Holy  Ghost,  and  Lectures  on  Bcriptiiral  Subjects;  and 
among  his  unpublished  manuscripts  there  is  an  exten- 
sive treatise  on  Theology,  another  on  Hermeneutics  and 
Exegesis,  and  his  History  of  the  German  Reformed 
Church, — the  first  volume  of  which  is  now  given  to  the 
public. 

But  it  is  peculiarly  pleasant  to  contemplate  Dr. 
Mayer  in  the  light  of  a  Christian.  In  early  life  he 
sought  and  found  the  Saviour,  He  entered  into  a 
solemn  covenant  with  the  Lord,  to  obey  his  will  and  to 
be  his  faithful  and  willing  servant  for  ever.  He  un- 
alterably dedicated  himself  to  his  service,  and  througli- 
out  life  he  was  a  most  consistent  and  exemplary 
Christian.  Free  from  all  ostentation  and  pride,  from 
all  vanity  and  lightness  of  manner,  he  walked  humbly 
and  prayerfully  before  the  Lord,  and  endeavored  to 
perfect  holiness  in  the  fear  of  God.  During  an  inti- 
mate acquaintance  with  him  of  eighteen  years,  the 
writer  never  knew  him  to  indulge  in  any  light-minded- 
ness, or  in  any  trifling  behaviour  whatever.  He  was 
indeed  remarkable  for  his  correct  Christian  deportment, 
and  for  his  holy  walk  and  conversation.  Religion  with 
him  was  not  merely  a  name ;  it  entered  deeply  into  all 
his  thoughts  and  feelings — subdued  and  controlled  his 
will — swayed  his  judgment,  and  gave  tone  and  character 
to  all  his  words  and  actions.  His  piety  was  of  a  serious, 
modest,  retiring  character, — yet  withal  it  was  earnest 
and  decided.     He  seemed  to  live  in  God  and  God  in 


LIFE    OF   REV.  DR.  MAYER.  13 

him.  The  doctrines  of  grace,  of  free  grace,  were 
always  delightfully  jDrecious  doctrines  to  him,  and  he 
loved  to  speak  about  them  and  to  dwell  upon  them. 
The  righteousness  of  Christ  was  his  righteousness. 
He  felt  that  Jesus  had  died  for  him,  and  could  truly 
say— 

"Jesus,  my  Shepherd,  Husband,  Friend, 
My  Prophet,  Priest,  and  King, 
My  Lord,  my  Life,  my  Way,  my  End, 
Accept  the  praise  I  bring." 

With  St.  Paul,  he  gloried  in  the  cross  of  Christ,  and  in 
that  only. 

In  puhlic  life,  Dr.  Mayer  was  prominent,  and  shared 
largely  in  the  respect  and  confidence  of  all  who  knew 
him.  He  was  honored  again  and  again  with  important 
appointments  and  stations,  and  for  many  years  was  a 
leading  member  of  the  Synod  of  his  Church.  He  had 
great  influence  in  the  Church,  and  he  did  not  fail  to 
exert  it  in  behalf  of  her  institutions,  and  in  the  promo- 
tion of  her  best  interests.  To  the  cause  of  Christ,  in 
general,  he  was  strongly  attached ;  and  the  friends  of 
religion  everywhere  found  in  him  a  ready  and  able 
advocate  of  all  good  things.  With  a  mind  deeply 
imbued  with  the  spirit  of  his  divine  Lord,  and  a  heart 
warmed  and  swayed  by  his  love,  he  took  an  active 
part  in  promoting  genuine  revivals  of  religion,  and  in 
building  up  the  interests  of  Christ's  kingdom  in  the 
world.  In  all  his  private  relations,  also,  he  exhibited 
those  virtues  and  graces  which  adorn  the  Christian 
character  and  life. 

As  to  his  personal  appearance,  Dr.  Mayer  was  of 
medium  size.  He  did  not  measure  more  than  five  feet 
eight  inches  in  height,  and  his  frame  was  slender  and 
erect.  His  forehead  was  very  high,  and  indicated  great 
intellectual  strength,  as  may  be  seen  by  an  examina- 


14  LIFE   OF   REV.  DR.  MATER. 

tion  of  the  engraving  prefixed  to  this  memoir.  His  eye 
was  very  keen  and  penetrating,  and  his  whole  appear- 
ance commanded  reverence  and  respect.  In  his  dress, 
he  was  plain  and  very  neat.  His  utterance  was  easy, 
but  not  rapid,  and  his  gait  rather  slow.  He  was  very 
regular  in  his  habits,  and  remarkably  systematic  and 
precise  in  what  he  did.  In  all  things  he  was  a  man  of 
order,  and  observed  great  regularity  and  punctuality  in 
all  his  business  transactions.  In  his  intercourse  with 
others,  he  was  gentlemanly  and  kind.  His  manners 
were  always  pleasant  and  agreeable,  though  somewhat 
reserved  in  the  company  of  strangers. 

Dr.  Mayer  was  twice  married  ;  the  first  time,  during 
his  residence  at  Shepherdstown ;  the  second  time, 
during  his  residence  at  Carlisle.  By  his  first  marriage 
he  had  six  children,  three  of  whom  are  living,  and  one 
of  them,  a  son,  John  L.  Mayer,  Esq.,  is  an  eminent 
lawyer,  in  York.  By  his  second  marriage  he  had  no 
children.  His  first  wife  Avas  Catherine  Line,  the 
daughter  of  the  late  John  Line,  of  Shepherdstown; 
and  his  second  wife  was  Mary  Smith,  of  Lancaster, 
Pennsylvania,  who  survives  him. 

HIS  illness  and  death. 

Dr.  Mayer  did  not  enjoy  good  health  for  many  years. 
He  was  always,  indeed,  more  or  less  feeble  in  bodily 
vigor;  and  yet,  as  a  preacher,  pastor,  professor,  and 
author,  he  accomphshed  a  great  deal.  Like  Baxter 
and  others,  affliction  did  not  prevent  him  from  being 
abundant  in  labors.  But,  for  the  last  several  years  of 
his  life,  he  was  not  able  to  accomplish  much,  on  account 
of  his  fast-declining  health.  During  the  summer  of 
1849,  the  dysentery  prevailed  in  York,  in  the  form  of 
an  epidemic,  and  among  others  whom  it  attacked  was 


LIFE   OF   REV.  DR.  MAYER.  15 

the  subject  of  this  notice.  The  disease,  from  the  first, 
was  violent,  baffling  the  best  medical  skill,  and  leaving 
little  or  no  hope  for  his  recovery.  Kind  friends  tele- 
graphed the  writer  of  his  illness,  and  he  hastened  to 
his  bedside,  to  bid  him  a  last  adieu.  He  found  him  in 
fierce  conflict  with  the  last  enemy,  and  rapidly  sinking 
into  his  cold  embrace.  The  power  of  sight,  of  hearing, 
and  of  utterance  had  failed  him,  and  his  physicians 
said  he  could  not  survive  till  morning.  His  pulse  beat 
fainter  and  fainter,  and,  ere  the  sun  arose,  the  great 
and  good  man  had  passed  away.  That  which  remained 
was  cold  and  mortal.  He  died,  surrounded  by  his 
family  and  friends,  on  the  25th  of  August,  1849,  aged 
sixty-six  years,  four  months,  and  twenty-nine  days. 
On  Monday  afternoon,  the  27th  of  August,  his  remains 
were  followed  to  the  grave  by  a  large  concourse  of 
people,  and  were  interred  in  the  cemetery  adjoining  the 
Reformed  Church  in  York,  and  near  the  grave  of  the 
lamented  Cares.  An  address  was  delivered,  on  the 
mournful  occasion,  by  the  writer,  and  prayers  off'ered 
by  the  Rev.  Mr.  Emerson,  of  the  Presbyterian  Church. 
The  announcement  of  the  death  of  one  so  well  and 
so  favorably  known  awakened  feelings  of  deep  sorrow 
and  profound  regret  throughout  the  whole  Church. 
All  felt  that  a  great,  and  good,  and  very  useful  man 
in  Israel  had  faUen,  and  that,  too,  before  some  of  his 
most  important  labors  on  earth  were  finished.  The 
Master  called  him  home  much  sooner  than  the  Church 
had  hoped.  But  even  so,  Father,  for  so  it  seemed  good 
in  thy  sight. 


THE  HISTORY 


OF  THE 


§mum  txdmiA  Cjitirrjj, 

IN  ITS  ORIGIN  AND  PROGRESS. 


INTRODUCTION. 

The  title  Reformed  Church,  in  its  most  comprehensive 
sense,  designates  all  those  professing  Christians,  who,  em- 
bracing the  general  system  of  doctrine  which  was  taught  by 
the  Reformers,  have  rejected  Luther's  theory  of  a  corporeal 
presence  of  Christ  in  the  elements  of  the  Lord's  supper, 
and  hold,  in  this  particular,  the  belief  of  Zwingle,  or  that 
of  Calvin.  These  Christians  constitute  several  distinct  com- 
munities, each  of  which  has  its  particular  bond  of  union, 
and  diflfers  from  every  other  in  some  peculiarities  which  are 
sometimes  of  no  little  importance.  They  agree  in  few  things 
about  which  they  differ  from  Luther  and  his  folloAvers,  except 
in  their  view  of  the  Lord's  supper.  These  communities 
are  therefore  so  many  distinct  churches,  and,  instead  of 
calling  them  the  Reformed  Church,  we  must  call  them  the 
Reformed  Churches. 

The  title  Reformed  was  first  assumed  in  France,  by  those 
who  separated  from  the  Romish  communion,  and  was  adoj^ted 
from  them  by  their  brethren  in  Switzerland,  Germany,  Hoi 
land,  &c.  In  England,  it  is  used  to  denote  all  the  churches 
which  have  embraced  the  doctrines  of  the  Reformation,  and 
thus  includes  the  Lutheran.  On  the  continent,  it  is  the 
b2  3  17 


18  HISTORY   OF   THE 

distinctive  title  of  those  Protestant  communities  whicli  are 
not  Lutheran,  exclusive  of  Socinians  and  Anabaptists. 

The  French  Protestants  were,  by  their  adversaries,  called 
Huguenots.  The  derivation  of  this  term  is  somewhat  un- 
certain. It  is,  however,  very  probable  that  it  originated 
in 'a  corrupt  French  pronunciation  of  the  German  word 
JEidgenoss,  softened  into  Mdgenott,  and  then  corrupted  into 
Suquenot.  The  word  Eidgenoss,  in  its  plural  JEidgenossen, 
signifying  confederates,  or  rather  j^artaJcers  of  the  oath,  was 
ori  finally  the  designation  of  the  thirty-three  Swiss  confede- 
rates, who,  in  the  night  of  the  seventh  of  November,  1307, 
bound  themselves  by  a  solemn  oath  to  defend  the  liberties 
of  their  country  against  the  Emperor  Albert  I.  It  became, 
subsequently,  the  distinctive  title  of  the  confederated  can- 
tons which  were  parties  to  a  perpetual  league  for  the  com- 
mon defence  and  safety,  and,  in  common  parlance,  was  used 
to  denote  the  people  of  those  cantons  individually. 

In  Germany,  the  Reformed  were  denominated,  by  their 
opponents,  Zwinglians  and  Calvinists,  and,  in  derision,  Sac- 
ramentarians.     English  writers  speak  of  the  two  principal 
Protestant  denominations  on  the  continent  as  the  Lutheran 
church  and  the  Calvinistic  church.     This,  however,  is   an 
erroneous  distinction.      The  Reformed  churches  on  the  con- 
tinent are  not  all  Calvinistic.      In  some  parts  of  Crermany 
they  never  received  Calvin's  doctrine  of  unconditional  elec- 
tion  and  reprobation  ;   and  the  writer  is  not  aware  that  it 
is,   at  this  time,  made  a  term  of  communion  anywhere   in 
the  Reformed  church  of  that  country.     This  doctrine,  which 
constitutes  the  principal  feature  of  the  system  to  which  the 
name  Calvinism  is  given,  was  taught  in  the  Christian  church 
long  before  Calvin,  has  always  had  adherents  Avho  were  not 
in   connection  Avith  the  Reformed  church,  and  was  held  by 
Luther,  Melancthon,  &c.  themselves.     The  term  Zwinglians, 
is  equally  inappropriate.     Zwingle  held  some  opinions,  both 
in  doctrine  and  church-government,  which  were  at  no  time 
generally  received  in  the  Reformed  church,  and  in  some  of 
which  he  had  few  followers  even  in  his  own  country. 


GERMAN   REFORMED    CHURCH.  19 

As  members  of  the  Reforaied  church  ^ve  are  not  pledged 
to  receive  and  defend  the  system  either  of  Calvin  or  of 
Zwingle,  or  of  any  other  man,  except  so  far  as  it  is  in  accord- 
ance with  the  Holy  Scriptures.  We  acknowledge  no  master 
on  earth :  one  is  our  master,  even  Christ.  To  his  authority 
we  submit  with  humble  and  cheerful  acquiescence  :  we  sit 
at  his  feet  in  the  character  of  learners,  and  receive  his  in- 
structions as  the  teaching  of  God.  He  only  is  the  Lord  of 
conscience,  and  only  his  decision  can  limit  the  right  of  pri- 
vate judgment,  and  the  freedom  of  inquiry.  The  memory 
of  those  great  men  who  were  instrumental  in  restoring  the 
light  of  truth  and  the  blessings  of  religious  liberty,  is  justly  held 
in  high  veneration,  and  their  faults  are  forgotten  in  the  grate- 
ful remembrance  of  the  benefits  which  they  have  conferred ;  but 
we  do  not  forget  that  they  were  fallible  men,  and  that  God 
never  could  design  to  liberate  us  from  the  domination  of 
one  earthly  master  that  we  might  be  subjected  to  that  of 
another. 

The  principal  divisions  of  the  Reformed  church  are  the 
Helvetic  or  Swiss  Reformed,  the  German  Reformed,  the 
French  Reformed,  the  Dutch  Reformed,  and  the  English 
Reformed.  The  Waldenses  and  the  Bohemian  brethren  are 
of  the  Reformed  persuasion ;  and  there  are  also  many  Re- 
formed churches  in  Hungary,  Poland,  Transylvania,  and 
other  countries  of  Europe.  The  Reformed  churches  of  Swit- 
zerland and  of  Crermany  may  be  taken  as  one,  and  comprised 
under  the  general  designation  of  German  Reformed,  inas- 
much as  they  use  the  same  language,  and  dijGfer  in  nothing 
that  is  of  importance. 

The  English  Reformed  church  is  subdivided  into  the  Epis- 
copal, the  Presbyterian,  and  the  Congregational  or  Indepen- 
dent, which  have  embraced  different  theories  of  church-govern- 
ment. Dr.  Mosheim,  in  his  Ecclesiastical  History,  speaking 
of  the  state  of  the  Reformed  church  in  the  eighteenth  century, 
says,  "  The  church  of  England  is  now  the  chief  and  leading 
branchof  that  great  community  that  goes  under  the  denomina- 
tion of  the  Reformed  church."     He  means  the  established 


20  HISTORY   OF   THE 

church  oiJEnglmid,  which  is  the  Episcopal.  This  representation 
differs  widely  from  the  impressions  which  are  common  in  this 
country.  It  is  imagined  here,  that  the  two  great  English 
churches,  the  Episcopal  and  the  Presbyterian,  must  corre- 
spond to  the  two  great  German  churches,  the  Lutheran  and 
the  Reformed ;  and  it  is  common  to  speak  of  the  Episcopal 
church  as  the  English  Lutheran,  and  of  the  German  Re- 
formed as  the  German  Presbyterian.  This  is  an  error  which 
ouo'ht  to  be  avoided.  The  Episcopal  church,  which  disallows 
the  ordination  of  all  other  churches  that  are  not  governed  by 
bishops,  and,  so  far  as  the  rigid  party  in  it  are  concerned, 
does  not  allow  that  they  are  Christian  churches  at  all,  differs 
more  from  the  Lutheran  church  than  the  Lutheran  differs  from 
any  other  of  the  Reformed  churches.  Though  the  Presby- 
terian church  and  the  German  Reformed  are  both  members 
of  the  same  family,  they  are  not  one  and  the  same  member, 
any  more  than  is  the  Episcopal  or  the  Congregational.  The 
difference  of  language  is  not  the  only  difference,  nor  the  most 
important  one,  subsisting  between  them.  The  German  Re- 
formed church  is  governed  by  Elders  and  Deacons,*  both  of 
which  are  elected  for  limited  periods ;  the  Presbyterian  church 
is  governed  by  Elders  only,  and  these  are  chosen  and  or- 
dained for  life.  The  Reformed  church  observes  the  festivals 
of  Christmas,  Good-Friday,  Easter,  Ascension,  and  Whit- 
suntide, in  commemoration  of  the  birth,  the  passion,  the 
resurrection,  and  the  ascension  of  Christ,  and  of  the  descent 
of  the  Holy  Ghost  upon  the  Apostles ;  the  Presbyterian  re- 
jects all  holy-days,  except  the  Lord's  day,  on  the  ground  that 
all  others  are  of  human  appointment,  and  thus  disallows  the 
principle,  which  other  Christians  hold,  that  the  church  itself 
may  set  apart  sacred  seasons  for  the  purpose  of  particularly 
commemorating  the  great  leading  facts  of  the  Christian  his- 
tory, and  contemplating  the  manifestations  which  they  give 
of  the  riches  of  divine  grace  in  our  redemption.  The  German 
Reformed  church,  like  the  Lutheran,  considers  the   Lord's 

*  In  Switzerland  it  has  neither  lay-elders  nor  deacons. 


GERMAN   REFORMED   CHURCH.  21 

day  a  sacred  season,  set  apart  for  the  performance  of  the 
ordinary  public  worship  of  God,  and  deriving  all  its  sacredness 
from  the  service  to  which  it  is  appointed ;  the  Presbyterian 
regards  the  day  as  intrinsically  holy.  Presbyterians  consider 
it  the  sabbath  enjoined  by  the  fourth  commandment,  but 
modified  by  our  Lord  as  to  the  day  and  the  penalty  of  its 
violation,  and  derive  its  sanctity  from  the  fact  that  the 
seventh  day  is  the  day  of  God's  resting  from  all  his  work.  The 
Reformed  church  admits  the  use  of  a  liturgy  in  the  worship 
of  God  and  the  administration  of  the  sacraments ;  the  Pres- 
byterian rejects  all  set  forms  in  its  sacred  ministrations,  as 
inconsistent  with  the  spirituality  and  the  freedom  of  Christian 
worship.  The  Presbyterian  church  is  strictly  Calvinistic  in 
her  creed,  and  pronounces  Arminianism,  and  all  approaches 
to  it,  heresy,  which  it  refuses  to  tolerate  in  its  communion ; 
the  German  Reformed  church  indulges  greater  liberty  of  con- 
science to  her  members,  and  cherishes  equally  the  Calvinist 
and  the  Arminian  in  her  bosom.  There  is,  therefore,  as  much 
difference,  and  of  as  much  importance,  between,  the  German 
Reformed  church  and  the  Presbyterian  church,  as  there  is 
between  any  two  other  Protestant  churches,  except,  in  some 
respects,  the  Episcopalian ;  and  it  is  consequently  a  great 
mistake  to  imagine  that  the  languages  which  they  use  consti- 
tute all  the  difference  between  them. 

The  terms  Episcopal,  or  Episcopalian,  Presbyterian,  and 
Congregational,  have  respect  to  the  form  of  church-govern- 
ment in  the  several  churches  to  which  these  designations  are 
respectively  given.  Episcopal,  from  the  Greek  JEjnscopos,  a 
bishop,  denotes  a  government  of  the  church  by  bishops,  in 
the  modern  sense  of  this  title.  In  this  sense  the  bishop  is 
the  head  of  a  diocess,  and  has  under  his  jurisdiction  two  other 
orders  of  inferior  clergy,  namely,  the  order  of  priests,  and, 
below  this,  the  order  of  deacons.  Each  of  these  orders  has 
its  appropriate  functions,  and  all  are  subject  to  the  bishop's 
directions.  Presbyterian,  from  the  Greek  Preshyteros,  an 
elder,  designates  a  government  of  the  church  by  elders.  (These 
are  preaching  elders  or  ministers  of  the  word,   and  ruling 


22  HISTORY   OF  THE 

elders.)  They  constitute  the  several  judicatories  by  which  the 
church  is  governed,  which  are  essentially  the  Session  and  the 
Presbytery.  The  session  consists  of  the  minister  and  the 
elders  of  a  particular  congregation.  It  manages  the  internal 
concerns  of  the  congregation ;  but  an  appeal  may  be  taken 
from  its  decision  to  the  Presbytery.  A  Presbytery  is  com- 
posed of  the  minister  and  an  elder  from  each  of  the  congre- 
gations within  certain  bounds:  it  administers  the  external 
relations  of  the  congregations  within  its  bounds,  and  has  an 
appellate  jurisdiction  in  matters  of  internal  interest.  A  Sy- 
nod is  an  assemblage  of  several  Presbyteries.  The  General 
Assembly  is  a  delegated  body  composed  of  the  representatives 
of  all  the  Presbyteries,  and  deriving  all  its  authority  from 
them.  An  appeal  can  be  taken  from  the  Presbytery  to  the 
Synod,  and  from  the  Synod  to  the  General  Assembly,  which 
is  the  court  of  final  judicature  :  but  neither  the  Synod  nor  the 
Assembly  is  essential  to  Presbyterianism.  Congregational 
denotes  a  form  of  government  which  considers  each  particular 
congregatioa  a  perfect  and  independent  community  within 
itself.  "  Every  Christian  society  formed  upon  the  congrega- 
tional plan  is  strictly  independent  of  every  other  religious 
society."  It  transacts  all  its  own  affairs,  decides  every  ques- 
tion without  appeal,  and  acknowledges  no  binding  authority 
in  the  decisions  of  any  number  of  congregations  acting  by 
delegates  in  an  associated  capacity. 

The  German  Reformed  church  differs  from  all  these.  She 
is  essentially  Presbyterian  in  her  church-government,  as  she 
holds  the  principle  of  the  parity  of  all  ordained  ministers ; 
but  the  form  of  her  government  is  not  in  all  respects  the  same 
.  as  that  of  the  Presbyterian  church ;  neither  do  her  judica- 
tories possess  the  same  coercive  power.  The  Dutch  Reformed 
church  is,  in  this  respect,  more  like  the  Presbyterian ;  the 
German  Reformed  more  like  the  Lutheran. 

"  The  nature  and  constitution  of  the  Reformed  church," 
says  Dr.  Mosheim,  "  which  was  formerly  denominated  by  its 
adversaries  after  its  founders  Zwingle  and  Calvin,  is  entirely 
different  from  all  other  ecclesiastical    communities.     Every 


GERMAN   REFORMED    CHURCH.  28 

other  Christian  church  has  some  common  centre  of  union,  and 
its  members  are  connected  together  by  some  common  bond  of 
doctrine  and  discipline.  But  this  is  far  from  being  the  case 
of  the  Reformed  church,  whose  several  branches  are  neither 
united  by  the  same  system  of  doctrine,  nor  by  the  same  mode 
of  worship,  nor  yet  by  the  same  form  of  government.  It  is 
farther  to  be  observed,  that  this  church  does  not  require  from 
its  ministers  either  uniformity  in  their  private  sentiments,  or 
in  their  public  doctrine;  but  permits  them  to  explain  in  dif- 
ferent ways  several  doctrines  of  no  small- moment,  provided 
that  the  great  and  fundamental  principles  of  Christianity,  and 
the  practical  precepts  of  that  divine  religion,  be  maintained  in 
their  original  purity.  This  great  community,  therefore,  may 
be  properly  considered  as  an  ecclesiastical  body  composed  of 
several  churches,  that  vary,  more  or  less,  from  each  other  in 
their  form  and  constitution ;  but  which  arc  preserved,  how- 
ever, from  anarchy  and  schisms,  by  a  general  spirit  of  equity 
and  toleration,  that  runs  through  the  whole  system,  and  ren- 
ders variety  of  opinion  contjfstent  with  fraternal  union." 

"This  indeed,"  the  same  author  continues,  "was  not  the 
original  state  and  constitution  of  the  Reformed  church,  but 
was  the  result  of  a  certain  combination  of  events  and  circum- 
stances, that  threw  it,  by  a  sort  of  necessity,  into  this  ambi- 
guous form.  The  doctors  of  Sivitzerlajid,  from  whom  it  derived 
its  origin,  and  Calvin,  who  was  one  of  its  principal  founders, 
employed  all  their  credit,  and  exerted  their  most  vigo- 
rous efforts,  in  order  to  reduce  all  the  churches  which  em- 
braced their  sentiments,  under  one  rule  of  faith,  and  the  same 
form  of  ecclesiastical  government.  And,  although  they  con- 
sidered the  Lutherans  as  their  brethren,  yet  they  showed  no 
marks  of  indulgence  to  those  who  openly  favored  the  opinions 
of  Luther  concerning  the  EucJiarist,  the  Person  of  Christ, 
Predestination,  and  other  matters  that  were  connected  with 
these  doctrines ;  nor  would  they  permit  the  other  Protestant 
churches,  that  embraced  their  communion,  to  deviate  from 
their  example  in  this  respect.  A  new  scene,  hoAvever,  which 
was  exhibited  in  Britain,  contributed  much  to  enlarge  this 


24  HISTORY   OF   THE 

narrow  and  contracted  system  of  clmrcli  communion.  For 
when  the  violent  contest  concerning  the  form  of  ecclesiastical 
government,  and  the  nature  and  number  of  those  rites  and 
ceremonies  that  were  proper  to  be  admitted  into  the  public 
worship,  arose,  between  the  abettors  of  Episcopacy  and  the 
Puritans,  it  was  judged  necessary  to  extend  the  borders  of 
the  Reformed  church,  and  rank  in  the  class  of  its  true  mem- 
bers even  those  who  departed,  in  some  respects,  from  the 
ecclesiastical  polity  and  doctrines  established  at  Geneva. 
This  spirit  of  toleration  and  indulgence  grew  still  more  for- 
bearino-  and  comprehensive  after  the  famous  Synod  of  Dort. 
For,  though  the  sentiments  and  doctrines  of  the  Arminians 
were  condemned  in  that  numerous  assembly,  yet  they  gained 
ground  privately,  and  insinuated  themselves  into  the  minds 
of  many.  The  church  of  England,  under  the  reign  of  Charles 
I.,  publicly  renounced  the  opinions  of  Calvin  relating  to  the 
divine  decrees,  and  made  several  tttempts  to  model  its  doc- 
trines and  institutions  after  the  laws,  tenets,  and  customs 
that  were  observed  by  the  prinjitive  Christians.  On  the 
other  hand,  several  Lutheran  co  jgregations  in  Crermany  en- 
tertained a  strong  propensity  to  the  doctrines  and  discipline 
of  the  church  of  Creneva  ;  though  they  were  restrained  from 
declaring  themselves  fully  and  openly  on  this  head,  by  their 
apprehensions  of  forfeiting  the  privileges  they  derived  from 
their  adherence  to  the  Confession  of  Augsburg.  The  French 
refugees  also,  who  had  long  been  accustomed  to  a  moderate 
way  of  thinking  in  religious  matters,  and  whose  national  turn 
led  them  to  a  certain  freedom  of  inquiry,  being  dispersed 
abroad  in  all  parts  of  the  Protestant  world,  rendered  them- 
selves so  agreeable  by  their  wit  and  eloquence,  that  their  exam- 
ple excited  a  kind  of  emulation  in  favor  of  religious  liberty. 
All  these  circumstances,  accompanied  with  others  whose  influ- 
ence was  less  palpable,  though  equally  real,  instilled,  by  de- 
grees, such  a  spirit  of  lenity  and  forbearance  into  the  minds 
of  Protestants,  that  at  this  day,  all  Christians,  if  we  except 
Roman  Catholics,  Socinians,  Quakers,  and  Anabaptists,  may 
claim  a  place  among  the  members  of  the  Reformed  church. 


GERMAN   REFORMED    CHURCH.  25 

It  is  true,  great  reluctance  was  discovered  by  many  against 
this  comprehensive  scheme  of  church-communion ;  and,  even 
in  the  times  in  which  we  live,  the  ancient  and  less  charitable 
manner  of  proceeding  hath  several  patrons,  who  would  be 
glad  to  see  the  doctrines  and  institutions  of  Calvin  universally 
adopted,  and  rigorously  observed.  The  number,  however, 
of  these  rigid  doctors  is  not  very  great,  nor  is  their  influence 
considerable.  And  it  may  be  affirmed  with  truth,  that,  both 
in  point  of  number  and  authority,  they  are  much  inferior  to 
the  friends  of  moderation,  who  reduce  within  a  narrow  com- 
pass the  fundamental  doctrines  of  Christianity  on  the  belief 
of  which  salvation  depends,  exercise  forbearance  and  fraternal 
charity  towards  those  who  explain  certain  doctrines  in  a  man- 
ner peculiar  to  themselves,  and  desire  to  see  the  enclosure  (if 
I  may  use  that  expression)  of  the  Reformed  church  rendered 
as  large  and  comprehensive  as  possible." 

What  this  learned  writer  says  of  the  Reformed  church  col- 
lectively is  not  equally  applicable  to  all  the  several  commu- 
nities that  are  comprehended  in  it,  nor  of  all  the  same  com- 
munities in  every  period  of  their  existence.  These  different 
communities  have  but  little  connection  with  one  another ; 
and  their  agreement  on  those  points  in  which  they  differ 
from  the  Roman  Catholics,  or  from  the  Lutherans,  cannot 
prevent  their  disagreement  about  some  other  things  which, 
in  their  estimation,  are  of  equal  or  of  greater  moment :  nei- 
ther can  it  wholly  prevent  the  indulgence  of  those  feelings 
which  controversy  among  themselves  has  a  tendency  to  excite 
and  to  nourish.  But,  upon  the  whole,  and  as  applied  to  the 
Reformed  church  in  general,  the  author's  remarks  are  just ; 
and  as  far  as  they  are  just,  they  do  it  great  honor.  It  is 
only  to  be  regretted  that  they  are  not  applicable  without^ 
modification,  or  without  exception :  for  nothing,  certainly, 
can  be  more  in  unison  with  the  spirit  of  the  Gospel,  and  with 
the  mind  of  its  divine  author,  than  that,  as  we  cannot  all 
agree  about  every  shade  of  doctrine  and  of  worship,  we  should 
agree  to  differ  without  an  interruption  of  fraternal  harmony 
and  of  Christian  love. 

C  4 


26  HISTORY   OF  THE 

The  remark  of  Dr.  Moshcim,  that  the  Reformed  showed 
no  marks  of  indulgence  to  those  who  openly  favored  the  sen- 
timents of  Luther  concerning  the  eucharist,  the  person  of 
Christ,  or  predestination,  implies  that  Luther  did  not  hold  the 
doctrine  of  predestination,  and  that  it  was  exclusively  a  doc- 
trine of  the  Reformed  church.  This  is  incorrect.  Luther 
held  the  doctrine  of  predestination  as  rigidly  as  Zwingle  or 
Calvin.  There  was  no  controversy  on  this  point  between  the 
reformers,  nor  between  the  two  churches  for  some  time  after 
Luther's  death.  In  departing  from  this  doctrine,  the  Lu- 
theran church  became  a  follower,  not  of  Luther,  but  of  INIelanc- 
thon,  who  himself  had  been,  for  many  years,  a  strenuous 
predestinarian. 

Another  remark,  that  the  church  of  England,  under  the 
reign  of  Charles  L,  publicly  renounced  the  doctrine  of  Calvin 
concerning  the  divine  decrees,  is  also  inaccurate.  "  Though 
many  members  of  that  church,  with  Archbishop  Laud  at  their 
head,  taught  the  doctrines  of  Arminius,  and  propagated  them 
in  that  reign,  there  was  no  public  act  of  the  church  by  which 
it  renounced  the  sentiments  of  Calvin,  and  adopted  those  of 
Arminius."* 

A  complete  separate  history  of  the  Reformed  church  has 
not  yet  been  published.  It  was  undertaken  by  Abraham 
Schultet,  of  the  Palatinate,  and  brought  down  as  far  as  his 
own  time,  in  his  Annales  Evangelii  Renovati,  the  greater 
part  of  which  is  lost.  Among  the  works  which  have  appeared 
in  this  department  of  literature,  are  the  following : 

Histoire  de  la  Religion  des  Eglises  Reformdes  depuis  Jesus 
Christ  jusq'a  present,  par  Mons.  J.  Basnage.  2  vols.  4to, 
1721.  "  This  work  is  not  a  regular  history  of  the  Reformed 
church,  but  is  designed  only  to  show  that  the  peculiar  doc- 
trines of  this  church  were  not  new,  but  Avere  taught  and  pro- 
fessed in  the  earliest  ages  of  Christianity." 

Histoire  Ecclesiastique  des  Eglises  Reformdes  au  Royaume 
de  France,  depuis  I'an  1521,  jusq'en  I'ann^e  1563.    3  vols. 

*  Maclaine's  Mosheim. 


GEKMAN   REFORMED    CHURCH.  27 

8vo.  By  Theodore  Beza,  the  successox'  of  Calvin  at  Geneva, 
and  N.  Galassius. 

Histoh'e  de  I'Edit  de  Nantes.  By  L.  Benoist,  preacher  of 
the  Walloon  church,  in  Delft,  5  vols.  4to.  This  work  em- 
braces the  whole  Reformed  church  from  1520  to  1586. 

J.  H.  Hettinger  Historia  Ecclesiastica,  Part  IX. — J.  J. 
Hettinger's  Helvetische  Kirchen-Geschichte,  3  vols.  4to. 
Theil  III.,  which  brings  the  history  of  the  Swiss  church  to 
the  year  1700. — Abraham  Ruchat  Histoire  de  la  Reformation 
de  la  Swisse,  6  vols.  12mo.  i 

Neuere  Helvetische  Kirchen-Geschichte  von  der  Reforma- 
tion biss  auf  unsere  Zeit,  von  Ludwig  Wirz ;  fortgesetzt  von 
Melchior  Kirchhofer,  2  vols.  Svo.  1816-19.  This  is  the 
fourth  and  fifth  volume  of  a  larger  work  entitled  Helvetische 
Kirchen-Geschichte,  von  Lud.  "Wirz,  in  5  vols.  The  history 
is  brought  only  to  the  year  1522. 

Ursprung,  Gang,  and  Folgen  der  von  Ulrich  Zwingli  in 
Zurich  bewirkten  Glaubens-Verbesserung  und  Reformation. 
Von  Solomon  Hess,  Zurich,  1819,  4to. 

Schicksale  der  Protestanten  in  Frankreich,  von Ram- 
bach,  2  vols.  8vo.,  Halle  1795. 

Historische  Nachricht  von  dem  ersten  Anfang  der  Evan- 
gelish  Reformirten  Kirche  in  Brandenburg  und  Preussen, 
&c.  Von  D.  H.  Hering. 

Besides  these,  many  other  Avorks  containing  portions  of  the 
history  of  the  Reformed  church  in  Great  Britain,  the  Nether- 
lands, and  the  several  German  states,  have  been  published. 
A  brief  general  account  of  the  Reformed  church  is  contained 
in  the  several  works  of  general  ecclesiastical  history  which 
have  been  written ;  and  many  notices  of  it  are  interspersed 
in  the  civil  history  of  the  several  countries  in  which  it  is  pro- 
fessed. 


THE   STATE   OF    THE   CHURCH 

PRIOR  TO 

\t  lUfarmation, 


About  the  time  of  the  Reformation  the  state  of  the  church 
and  of  religion  presented  to  the  pious  and  thoughtful  observer 
a  melancholy  and  discouraging  aspect ;  not  for  any  want  of 
external  pomp  and  splendor  in  the  established  Avorship,  or  in 
the  form  and  condition  of  the  hierarchy ;  but  for  the  almost 
total  absence  of  Christian  knowledge,  piety,  and  virtue.  Cor- 
ruptions of  the  most  repulsive  character  prevailed  amongst 
all  classes  of  men,  both  of  the  clergy  and  the  people,  not  ex- 
cepting the  high  dignitaries  of  the  church,  nor  its  supreme 
head  himself,  who  bore  the  title  of  "  The  Holy  Father,"  and 
was  esteemed  the  Vicegerent  of  God  on  earth.  When  Leo  X. 
succeeded  to  the  Papal  see,  the  Roman  church  had  attained 
to  that  lofty  height  of  power  and  of  glory  to  which  Gregory 
VH.  had  labored  so  assiduously  to  elevate  it,  but  which  he 
had  scarcely  hoped  to  reach.  Under  the  reign  of  his  prede- 
cessor, Julius  II.,  the  council  of  J'isa,  which  had  been  called 
by  the  Emperor  and  the  King  of  France,  for  the  purpose  of 
reforming  the  church,  and  of  setting  bounds  to  the  arrogance 
of  the  lordly  pontiffs,  was  given  to  the  winds ;  and  another 
council  assembled  in  the  Lateran  by  Julius  himself,  and 
numerously  attended  from  all  parts  oi  Europe,  ■w?^^  submissive 
at  his  feet,  and  ready  to  decree  whatever  he  might  choose  to 
dictate.  Leo  saw  the  greater  part  of  the  Christian  world 
bowed  down  under  the  Papal  yoke ;  and  emboldened  by  the 
almost  universal  acquiescence  in  his  high  pretensions,  and 
the  awe  which  his  mysterious  power   inspired,   resolved   to 

suffer  no  restrictions,  and   to  govern  the  church   agreeably 

28 


GERMAN   REFORMED   CHURCH.  29 

to  his  own  pleasure.  Scarcely  did  any  venture  to  declare 
themselves  openly  against  him.  The  followers  of  Huss 
and  of  Jerome  of  Prague  were  subdued,  and  dared  to  speak 
their  sentiments  only  in  whispers  among  themselves.  The 
Waldenses  in  the  valleys  of  Piedmont  were  well-nigh  exter- 
minated :  the  few  that  remained  lived  in  the  greatest  poverty, 
disheartened  by  their  weakness,  and  hoped  only  to  preserve 
to  their  posterity,  in  the  obscure  corner  which  remained  to 
them,  the  precious  truth  which  was  their  own  consolation 
in  their  distress.  If  any  lifted  up  their  voice  and  cried 
against  the  disorders  of  the  church  and  the  corruptions  that 
prevailed  in  high  places,  the  pope  could  look  down  upon  them 
from  his  high  eminence  in  proud  derision,  and  laugh  to  scorn 
their  feeble  and  vain  attempts  to  make  an  impression  upon 
his  throne,  or  to  interfere  with  his  purpose  of  ambition  or  of 
pleasure.  In  the  western  church  the  temporal  power  was 
chiefly  in  the  hands  of  Austria  and  France^  and  the  rulers  of 
these  formidable  empires,  in  their  fierce  contests  with  one 
another,  vied  with  each  other  for  the  friendship  of  the  pope, 
as  often  as  they  needed  it,  leaving  neither  flatteries  nor  favors 
untried  to  secure  his  alliance.  He  was,  indeed,  often  the 
master-spirit  who  inveigled  them  into  his  plans.  Three  cen- 
turies earlier,  Gregory  VII.  beheld  the  German  Emperor 
prostrate  before  him  as  an  imploring  penitent;  and  that 
emperor's  son  and  successor  could  only  obtain  upon  his  knees 
another  pope's  permission,  after  five  years'  delay,  to  bury  the 
corpse  of  his  father  who  had  died  under  the  haughty  prelate's 
ban! 

The  pope  claimed  authority  from  heaven  to  dispose  of  states 
and  kingdoms  at  his  pleasure,  to  dissolve  the  obligation  of 
oaths  and  of  solemn  treaties,  to  lay  whole  countries  under 
an  interdict, — shutting  up  their  churches,  suspending  all  the 
ministrations  of  religion,  and  forbidding  the  burial  of  the 
dead, — to  forgive  sins  or  to  retain  them,  to  open  the  gate  of 
heaven  or  to  shut  it,  to  deliver  souls  from  the  horrible  pains 
of  purgatory  or  to  leave  them  there,  and  to  bind  the  con- 
sciences of  all  men  by  his  decisions  in  matters  of  faith  and 
c2 


30  HISTORY   OF   THE 

practice.  A  numerous  body  of  clergy,  in  every  Christian 
country,  were  prepared  to  second  these  arrogant  pretensions. 
Every  part  of  Christendom  abounded  with  priests  and  monks 
who,  forbidden  by  the  laws  of  the  church  to  enter  into  the 
bonds  of  wedlock,  could  not  legally  become  heads  of  families, 
and  sustain  the  relations  of  husband  and  father.  They  had, 
therefore,  no  domestic  duties  to  perform,  no  families  to  pro- 
vide for,  and  no  interest  apart  from  that  of  their  order,  and 
were  unconnected,  as  far  as  it  was  possible,  with  the  com- 
munity in  which  they  lived.  The  personal  interest  of  each 
was  identified  with  that  of  the  body  to  which  he  belonged, 
and  of  the  pope,  as  the  common  head,  whose  will  governed 
and  whose  power  protected  them.  The  holy  father  used  them, 
not  to  instruct  the  people  in  the  knowledge  of  God  and  to 
edify  them  unto  eternal  life  by  their  ministry,  but  for  another 
purpose  which  he  valued  more :  for  the  purpose  of  putting 
the  whole  Christian  world  under  his  feet,  and  keeping  it  there. 
They  were  found  in  every  court,  in  every  public  institution, 
and  in  every  family ;  they  were  there  as  the  confessors  and 
spiritual  guides  both  of  the  people  and  of  their  rulers,  and 
as  the  ministers  and  emissaries  of  the  pope ;  and  by  the  con- 
fessions which  they  exacted,  and  which  they  represented  as 
essential  to  salvation,  they  possessed  themselves  of  the  secrets 
of  every  heart,  and  subjected  every  individual  to  their  power. 
The  clergy  were  possessed  of  immense  wealth,  which  had 
accumulated  in  the  lapse  of  ages,  by  the  endowment  of 
churches  and  monasteries,  through  the  mistaken  piety  of  the 
times.  About  one-half  of  the  landed  estates  were  in  their 
hands  :  they  rolled  in  wealth  while  the  people  were  poor,  and 
indulged  in  voluptuous  living  while  their  flocks  were  left  to 
want.  They  were  free  from  ordinary  taxation,  and  exempted 
from  the  jurisdiction  of  the  civil  rulers.  For  violations  of 
the  laws  of  the  state,  as  well  as  for  transgressions  of  the  laws 
of  the  church,  they  were  amenable  to  none  but  the  ecclesi- 
astical courts :  and  by  these  they  were  usually  treated  with 
the  utmost  lenity  for  civil  offences,  however  severely  they 
might  be  punished  for  sins  against  the  church. 


GERMAN   REFORMED   CHURCH.  31 

The  manners  of  the  sacred  order,  with  here  and  there  an 
honorable  exception,  were  deplorably  corrupt.  Few  of  the 
popes  themselves,  notwithstanding  their  high-sounding  title 
of  3Iost  Holy,  could  claim  an  exemption  from  this  charge ; 
and  many  of  them  were  examples  of  most  abandoned  vicious- 
ness.  "Alexander  VI.,  who  occupied  the  chair  of  St.  Peter 
at  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century,  was  a  wretch,"  says 
Mosheim,  "  whom  humanity  disowns,  and  who  is  rather  to  be 
considered  as  a  monster  than  as  a  man ;  whose  deeds  excite 
horror,  and  whose  enormities  place  him  among  the  most  exe- 
crable tyrants  of  ancient  times.  His  successor,  Julius  II., 
dishonored  the  pontificate  with  the  most  odious  list  of  vices ; 
to  which  we  may  add  the  most  savage  ferocity,  the  most  auda- 
cious arrogance,  the  most  despotic  vehemence  of  temper,  and 
the  most  extravagant  and  frantic  passion  for  war  and  blood- 
shed." \Leo  X.,  who  presided  in  the  papal  see  at  the  com- 
mencement of  the  Reformation,  was,  indeed,  of  a  milder  dis- 
position than  his  predecessors,  a  man  of  learning,  and  a  patron 
of  learned  men ;  but  he  was  equally  indifferent  to  the  interests 
of  true  piety,  devoted  himself  to  pleasure  and  the  pursuits  of 
ambition,  and,  like  all  that  had  preceded  him,  made  the  opu- 
lence and  grandeur  of  the  Roman  see  the  paramount  object 
of  his  care.  It  had  become  essential,  indeed,  to  the  stability 
and  glory  of  the  pontificate,  that  a  pope  should  be  sagacious, 
firm,  and  bold,  rather  than  honest  and  pure.  Adrian  VI., 
the  successor  of  Leo,  was  rewarded  with  hatred,  opposition, 
and  an  early  death,  for  his  sincere  attempts  at  a  reformation 
of  the  church,  and  his  honest  confession  of  its  necessity  in  his 
letter  to  the  German  diet ;  and  with  reference  to  him  Pala- 
vicini,  quoted  by  Gieseler,  says,  "It  is  found  by  experience 
that  not  only  the  Roman  pontificate,  but  even  the  government 
of  an  ordinary  religious  order,  however  simple  an^  rigid  its 
rule  may  be,  is  better  administered  by  one  who  is  endowed 
with  moderate  honesty  joined  with  superior  sagacity,  than  by 
one  possessing  holiness  united  with  moderate  sagacity.  For 
which  reason,  in  order  that  sanctity  itself  may  be  maintained 


32  HISTORY   OP  THE 

among  the  people,  it  is  not  so  much  holiness  as  sagacity  that 
is  important."* 

"  The  licentious  example  of  the  pontiffs,"  says  Mosheim, 
"were  imitated  in  the  lives  and  manners  of  the  subordinate 
rulers  and  ministers  of  the  church.  The  greatest  part  of  the 
bishops  and  canons  passed  their  days  in  dissolute  mirth  and 
luxury,  and  squandered  away,  in  the  gratification  of  their  lusts 
and  passions,  the  wealth  that  had  been  set  apart  for  religious 
and  charitable  purposes.  Nor  were  they  less  tyrannical  than 
voluptuous :  for  the  most  despotic  princes  never  treated  their 
vassals  with  more  rigor  and  severity,  than  these  ghostly  rulers 
employed  toward  those  who  were  under  their  jurisdiction." 

The  monastic  orders  were  in  no  respect  better  than  the 
secular  clergy.  "They  did  not  take  the  least  pains,"  says 
the  same  author,  "  to  preserve  any  remains  of  even  the  exter- 
nal air  of  decency  and  religion  that  used  to  distinguish  them 
in  former  times.  The  Benedictine  and  the  other  monkish 
fraternities,  who  were  invested  with  the  privilege  of  possessing 
certain  lands  and  revenues,  broke  through  all  restraint,  made 
the  worst  possible  use  of  their  opulence,  and,  forgetful  of  the 
gravity  of  their  character  and  of  the  laws  of  their  order, 
rushed  headlong  into  the  shameless  practice  of  vice,  in  all  its 
various  kinds  and  degrees.  On  the  other  hand,  the  mendicant 
orders,  and  especially  those  who  followed  the  rule  of  St.  Domi- 
nic and  St.  Francis,  though  they  were  not  carried  away  with 
the  torrent  of  licentiousness  that  was  overwhelming  the  church, 
yet  they  lost  their  credit  in  a  different  way;  for  their  rustic 
impudence,  their  ridiculous  superstitions,  their  ignorance, 
cruelty,  and  brutish  manners,  alienated  from  them  the  minds  of 
the  people,  and  diminished  their  reputation  from  day  to  day. 
They  had  the  most  barbarous  aversion  to  the  arts  and  sciences, 
and  expressed  a  like  abhorrence  of  certain  eminent  and 
learned  men,  who  endeavored  to  open  the  paths  of  science  to 
the  studious  youth,  recommended  the  culture  of  the  mind,  and 
attacked  the  barbarism  of  the  age  in  their  writino;s  and  their 
discourse." 

*  Gieseler's  Lchrbucli  der  Kirch,  Gescli.  Bd.  3,    Th.  1,  s.  118  n. 


GERMAN   REFORMED    CHURCH.  33 

It  was  very  natural  that  this  decline  of  virtue  in  the  clergy 
should  be  followed  by  the  loss  of  public  esteem,  and  that  by 
such  vices  they  should  become  infamous  and  contemptible, 
not  only  in  the  estimation  of  the  wise  and  good,  but  in  the 
judgment  even  of  the  multitude.  The  people,  however,  dis- 
tinguished between  the  institutions  of  religion  and  their  unwor- 
thy incumbents;  and  while  they  looked  upon  the  latter  with 
abhorrence,  they  still  regarded  the  former  with  the  utmost 
veneration.  They  were  conscious  still  of  their  need  of  religion 
to  give  peace  to  their  troubled  minds ;  but  what  that  religion 
was  which  they  needed,  they  knew  not :  ignorant  of  its  nature, 
they  mistook  for  it  the  external  forms  to  which  they  had  been 
accustomed,  and  expected  from  these  a  saving  effect.  But 
these  forms  were  in  the  power  of  the  clergy,  and  inseparable 
from  their  ministrations  ;  confessions  could  not  be  made,  abso- 
lutions could  not  be  given,  masses  could  not  be  said,  nor  could 
any  of  the  ceremonies  of  religion  be  rightly  performed  without 
the  priest ;  the  priest,  therefore,  held  in  his  hands  the  keys 
of  heaven  and  hell ;  and  without  him  there  Avas  no  salvation. 
Hence  these  profligate  ecclesiastics  were  still  chosen  as  father 
confessors  and  spiritual  guides,  by  people  of  all  classes,  who 
confessed  their  sins  to  them,  received  absolution  from  them, 
and  paid  them  to  say  masses  for  their  souls,  and  for  the  souls 
of  their  friends  in  purgatory  ;  and  such  was  the  superstitious 
veneration  for  the  monastic  institution,  notwithstanding  the 
scandalous  lives  of  the  monks,  that  persons  even  of  the  higher 
ranks,  and  those  of  princely  dignity,  hoped  to  secure  their 
salvation  by  ending  their  days  in  a  convent ;  and  others,  tor- 
tured by  a  guilty  conscience,  when  they  felt  the  approach  of 
death,  put  on  the  habit  of  a  monk,  that  they  might  die  in  it, 
and  thus  have  a  safe  passage  to  heaven  ! 

The  state  of  religious  knowledge  among  the  clergy  was  as 
deplorable  as  their  morals.  The  Eible  was  to  them  a  strange 
book.  When  Luther  arose  in  Crermany,  there  was  none 
among  the  theological  doctors  that  could  dispute  with  him  on 
scriptural  grounds;  and  when  the  magistrates  oi  Beni  had 
invited  the  bishops  of  that  country  to  participate  in  a  religious 

5 


34  HISTORY   OF   THE 

discussion  in  their  city,  either  in  person  or  by  their  learned 
divines,  these  dignitaries  declined  the  invitation,  and  the 
bishop  of  Lausanne  assigned  as  a  reason,  that  he  had  no 
ecclesiastics  -who  were  so  conversant  with  the  Scriptures  as  to 
be  able  to  investigate  religious  questions.*  The  teachers  of 
religion  knew  almost  nothing  of  the  doctrine  of  Christ  and  his 
apostles.  It  sometimes  occurred  even  that  a  priest  did'  not 
know  the  apostles'  creed,  and  there  was  a  necessity  of  enjoin- 
ing upon  bishops  the  duty  of  seeing  that  a  priest  should  at 
least  be  familiar  with  that  symbol.f 

"The  public  worship  of  God,"  says  Mosheim,  "was  now  no 
more  than  a  pompous  round  of  external  ceremonies,  the  greatest 
part  of  which  were  insignificant  and  senseless,  and  much  more 
adapted  to  dazzle  the  eyes  than  to  touch  the  heart.  The 
number  of  those  who  were  at  all  qualified  to  administer  in- 
struction to  the  people  was  not  very  considerable ;  and  their 
discourses,  which  contained  little  else  than  fictitious  reports, 
miracles  and  prodigies,  insipid  fables,  wretched  quibbles,  and 
illiterate  jargon,  deceived  the  multitude  instead  of  instructing 
them.  Several  of  these  discourses  are  yet  extant,  which  it  is 
impossible  to  read  without  the  highest  indignation  and  con- 
tempt. Those  who,  on  account  of  their  gravity  of  manners, 
or  their  supposed  superiority  in  point  of  wisdom  and  know- 
ledge, held  the  most  distinguished  rank  among  these  vain 
declaimers,  had  a  commonplace  set  of  subjects  allotted  to 
them,  on  which  they  were  constantly  exercising  the  force  of 
their  lungs  and  the  power  of  their  eloquence.  These  subjects 
were,  the  power  of  the  holy  mother  church,  and  the  obligation 
of  obedience  to  her  decision ;  the  virtues  and  merits  of  the 
saints,  and  their  credit  in  the  court  of  heaven  ;  the  dignity, 
glory,  and  love  of  the  blessed'virgin ;  the  efficacy  of  relics ; 
the  duty  of  adorning  churches  and  endowing  monasteries ; 
the  necessity  of  good  works  to  salvation,  as  that  phrase  was 
understood ;  the  intolerable  burnings  of  purgatory,  and  the 
utility  of  indulgences.     Such  were  the  subjects  that  employed 

*  Schroeck's  Kirch.  Gesch.  seit  der  Reformation,  Bd.  2,  s.  147. 
■j-  Neudecker's  Lexicon  der  Kirch.  Gesch.  Art.  Geistlichkeit. 


GERMAN   REFORMED    CHURCH.  85 

tlic  zeal  and  labors  of  the  most  eminent  doctors  of  this  cen- 
tury: and  they  were,  indeed,  the  only  subjects  that  could 
tend  to  fill  the  coffers  of  good  old  mother  church  and  advance 
her  temporal  interests."  None,  it  seems,  thought  of  preach- 
ing Christ  as  the  only  ground  of  a  sinner's  hope ;  none  taught 
the  doctrines  of  atonement  by  his  death,  of  faith  in  him,  of  the 
forgiveness  of  sins  by  the  free  grace  of  God,  of  regeneration 
by  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  of  the  necessity  of  internal  holiness, 
as  the  divine  oracles  contain  them.  Preachers  who  inculcated 
these  doctrines  would,  indeed,  have  edified  their  hearers  and 
promoted  the  cause  of  true  piety  and  virtue  among  the  people ; 
but  they  would  have  been  very  unprofitable  servants  to  the 
church  and  the  papacy,  whose  object  was  the  stability  of  their 
power  and  the  increase  of  their  wealth. 

Such  being  the  character  of  the  ministry  in  the  church,  the 
state  of  religion  and  morals  among  the  people  could  not  be 
otherwise  than  extremely  wretched.  The  grossest  ignorance 
of  religion,  the  vilest  superstition,  and  the  most  disgusting 
immoralities  prevailed  among  all  classes  and  orders  of  men. 
True  Christian  piety  had  no  existence,  or  was  to  be  found 
only  in  obscure  retirements,  blended,  wherever  it  appeared, 
with  more  or  less  of  the  superstition  of  the  age.  The  clergy 
showed  no  disposition  to  effect  a  change  of  this  lamentable 
state  of  things.  Destitute  of  true  piety  themselves,  ignorant 
of  its  nature  and  value,  and  intent  only  on  their  own  aggran- 
dizement, and  the  gratification  of  their  passions,  they  saw 
their  interest  rather  in  countenancing  the  reign  of  ignorance, 
superstition,  and  vice,  than  in  resisting  it :  "For  the  prudence 
of  the  church  had  easily  foreseen,"  says  Mosheim,  "  that  the 
trafiic  in  indulgences  could  not  but  suffer  from  a  diminution 
of  the  vices  and  crimes  of  mankind ;  and  that,  in  proportion 
as  virtue  gained  an  ascendant  upon  the  manners  of  the  multi- 
tude, the  profits  arising  from  expiations,  satisfactions,  and 
such  like  ecclesiastical  contrivances,  must  necessarily  cease." 
The  character  of  a  good  Christian,  drawn  by  St.  Eligius,  or 
Eloi,  bishop  of  Noyon  in  France^  in  the  seventh  century,  will 
shoAv  what  was  the  idea  of  Christian  piety  which  the  people 


86  HISTORY   OF   THE 

were  taught  to  entertain,  and  the  model  after  which  they  were 
exhorted  to  aspire,  in  his  time :  and  there  was  no  improve- 
ment upon  this  conception  at  the  period  of  the  Reformation : 
"He  is  a  good  Christian,"  says  Eligius,  "who  comes  fre- 
quently to  church,  and  presents  the  oblation  which  is  ofifered 
to  God  upon  the  altar ;  who  does  not  taste  of  his  fruits  until 
he  has  first  offered  a  part  to  God ;  who,  as  often  as  the  sacred 
festivals  approach,  lives  chastely  for  some  days  previously, 
even  with  his  own  wife,  that  he  may  come  to  the  altar  of  the 
Lord  with  a  safe  conscience ;  who,  finally,  can  repeat  the 
creed,  or  the  Lord's  prayer.  Redeem  your  souls  from  punish- 
ment while  you  have  the  means  in  your  power ;  offer  to  the 
church  oblations  and  tythes ;  light  candles  in  holy  places  as 
you  can  afford; — come  more  frequently  to  church;  humbly 
entreat  the  patronage  of  the  saints ; — which  being  observed, 
you  may  come  safely  before  the  tribunal  of  the  Eternal  on  the 
day  of  judgment,  and  say.  Give,  Lord,  because  we  have 
given."*  If  such  was  the  instruction  of  a  bishop,  and  a  saint, 
whom  the  church  of  Rome  honors  with  religious  veneration, 
that  of  the  common  order  of  the  priesthood  was  surely  no  bet- 
ter ;  and  the  piety  of  the  people  would  doubtless  not  exceed 
the  standard  which  so  holy  a  spiritual  father  proposed  as  the 
full  measure  of  Christian  virtue. 

The  condition  of  the  church  was  therefore  as  wretched  as 
human  depravity,  unchecked  by  the  light  of  true  Christianity, 
could  make  it.  In  this  miserable  state  of  things,  however,  the 
moral  sensibilities  of  human  nature,  though  seriously  dimi- 
nished, were  not  obliterated  or  destroyed.  Enough  was  still 
left  to  apprize  mankind  that  the  manners  of  the  times  were  not 
in  accordance  with  the  will  of  God ;  that  there  was  wrong  and 
sin  in  the  universal  corruption  of  morals,  and,  especially,  in 
the  vices  and  tyranny  of  the  clergy ;  and  the  necessity  of  a 
change  for  the  better  was  everywhere  acknowledged,  and  a 
speedy  reformation  loudly  demanded.  But  none  seemed  to 
know  where  to  find  the  root  of  the  evil.     A  reformation  was 

*  Mosheim's  Eccles.  History,  cent.  vii.  cli.  3,  note  x. 


GERMAN   REFORMED   CHURCH.  37 

desired  by  the  people  and  by  their  rulers,  as  they  expressed 
themselves,  in  the  head  and  in  the  members;  by  which  they 
understood  a  reform  in  the  lives  and  manners  of  the  pope  and 
his  clergy ;  but  few  thought  of  a  reformation  of  the  doctrine 
and  worship  of  the  church,  and  of  the  constitution  and  form 
of  her  ministry.  The  church  was  esteemed  infallible ;  the 
pope  was  acknowledged  as  her  visible  head  and  the  vicegerent 
of  Christ  upon  earth,  and  the  title  of  the  clergy  to  the  authority 
and  the  prerogatives  which  they  enjoyed  was  scarcely  ques- 
tioned. Those,  therefore,  who  demanded  a  reformation,  had 
no  thought  of  disturbing  the  faith  or  the  ceremonies  which  the 
church  had  sarnctioned,  nor  of  changing  the  established  hie- 
rarchy, but  wished  only  to  have  the  disgusting  scandals  of 
clerical  iniquity  purged  away,  the  pride,  insolence,  avarice, 
ambition,  and  lewdness  of  the  clergy  restrained,  the  insup- 
portable yoke  of  their  tyranny  broken,  and  a  faithful  per- 
formance of  their  sacred  functions  secured.  Neither  did  they 
think  of  undertaking  this  reformation  themselves :  they  sought 
it  from  the  pope  and  the  superior  clergy,  or  from  a  general 
council,  to  whom  alone,  it  was  conceded,  the  right  belonged  to 
sit  in  judgment  upon  the  sacred  order,  and  who  alone  would 
express  the  judgment  of  the  infallible  church.  At  a  later 
period,  when  the  light  had  begun  to  shine  amidst  the  darkness, 
the  true  source  of  all  the  evil  that  oppressed  the  church  was 
seen ;  but  even  Luther  did  not  see  it,  when  he  first  arose  to 
bear  testimony  against  the  abuse  of  indulgences. 

A  reformation  of  the  church  was  demanded  in  vain,  as  lonsr 
as  it  was  expected  from  her  spiritual  rulers,  whose  interest 
required  that  things  should  remain  as  they  were,  and  who 
hated  nothing  so  much  as  a  change.  Little  was  to  be  expected 
from  the  secular  powers,  whose  mutual  jealousies,  inflamed 
still  more  by  papal  intrigues,  would  have  prevented  harmonious 
action  in  such  a  cause,  if  they  had  been,  in  other  respects, 
qualified  for  the  task.  The  prospect  seemed  even  more  hope- 
less, if  a  reformation  were  attempted  by  an  individual,  who 
could  lay  no  claim  to  authority  and  a  power  of  coercion. 
Wickliffe  had  labored  in  vain ;  IIuss  and  Jerome,  of  Prague^ 


38  HISTORY   OF  THE 

had  perished  at  the  stake ;  the  Waldenses  were  crushed ;  and 
all  who  had  dared  to  rise  up  against  the  papal  throne,  had 
been  broken  to  pieces  as  with  a  rod  of  iron.  "Entrenched, 
therefore,  within  their  strong  holds,"  says  Mosheim,  "the 
pontiffs  looked  upon  their  own  authority,  and  the  peace  of  the 
church,  as  beyond  the  reach  of  danger,  and  treated  with  in- 
difference the  threats  and  invectives  of  their  enemies.  Armed, 
moreover,  with  power  to  punish,  and  abundantly  furnished 
with  the  means  of  rewarding  in  the  most  alluring  manner,  they 
were  ready,  on  every  commotion,  to  crush  the  obstinate,  and 
to  gain  over  the  mercenary  to  their  cause." 

But  the  papal  hierarchy  had  now  reached  its  maximum ;  the 
days  of  its  glory  were  numbered,  and  the  time  of  its  humilia- 
tion was  at  hand.  Its  terrific  power  was  in  reality  based  upon 
nothing  but  public  opinion,  which  itself  was  founded  in  error  : 
the  opinion,  namely,  that  the  church  is  infallible ;  that  it  is 
hers  to  interpret  the  Scripture  and  to  determine  articles  of 
faith ;  that  the  pope  is  divinely  constituted  her  visible  head 
and  the  vicar  of  Christ ;  and  that  the  clergy  are  the  church, 
and  express  her  judgment  in  a  general  council.  If  the  public 
mind  were  enlightened,  and  these  opinions  were  seen  to  be 
erroneous  and  false,  the  entire  fabric  would  fall  and  crumble 
to  pieces:  and  the  time  of  the  dawning  of  light  upon  the 
world  was  now  come. 

The  main  causes  that  introduced  the  Keformation,  acting 
upon  minds  that  felt  deeply  the  necessity  of  a  change,  were 
the  revival  of  learning  about  the  close  of  the  fifteenth  century, 
the  discovery  of  the  art  of  printing,  the  use  of  the  vernacular 
tongue  in  books,  and  the  rise,  about  the  same  time,  in  different 
countries  of  Europe,  of  men  of  genius,  and  of  independent 
minds,  who  thought  for  themselves,  and  dared  to  utter  aloud 
what  they  thought.  Among  these  men  we  may  reckon  John 
"Wesselius,  Hieronimus  Savanarola,  John  Picus,  Prince  of 
Mirandola,  John  Reuchlin,  Desiderius  Erasmus,  Ulric  von 
Hutten,  Thomas  Wittenbach,  and  the  reformers  themselves. 

When  from  these  sources  light  began  to  arise,  and  to  diffuse 
itself  over  every  subject  of  human  interest,  it  could  not  be 


GERMAN   REFORMED    CHURCH.  39 

wholly  excluded  from  religion.  Great  care  and  vigilance  were 
employed  by  the  hierarchy  to  guard  that  subject,  Avhere  their 
interests  were  affected,  against  what  they  chose  to  represent 
as  an  unhallowed  curiosity  and  impious  boldness.  The  doctors 
of  the  Sorbonnc,  or  theological  faculty  in  the  university  of 
Paris,  advised  the  French  king,  Francis  L,  to  suppress  the 
art  of  printing  in  his  dominions ;  and  the  monks  of  Crermany 
declared  that  German  books  would  pave  the  way  for  heresy 
and  every  species  of  error.* 

But  the  papacy  had  taken  care,  even  before  this  late  period, 
by  the  introduction  of  the  inquisition,  that  tribunal  which  it 
called  the  holy  office,  to  curb  the  freedom  of  thought,  and  to 
terrify  men's  minds  into  a  silent  acquiescence  in  the  decisions 
of  the  church.  This  infernal  tribunal  was  established  in  every 
country  whose  rulers  could  be  induced  to  subject  their  people 
to  its  horrible  tyranny  ;  and  it  was  now  justly  looked  to  as  the 
most  efficient  means,  wherever  it  could  be  employed,  to  protect 
the  corruptions  of  the  chui-ch  from  an  exposure  to  the  hated 
light.  But  the  jealous  hierarchy  did  not  stop  here :  resolved 
to  shut  up  every  avenue  through  which  the  light  might  enter, 
they  strictly  forbade  the  people,  under  the  dreaded  penalty  of 
heresy,  to  read  those  books  which  might  have  a  tendency  to 
open  their  eyes  upon  the  errors  and  abuses  of  the  church. 
They  had  long  since  deprived  them  of  the  Holy  Scriptures, 
having  forbidden  the  laity,  except  by  a  special  license  from 
their  bishop,  which  the  bishop  knew  how  to  withhold,  to  read 
the  Bible  in  the  vernacular  tongue,  the  only  tongue  which  the 
people  understood ;  alleging,  as  a  reason,  that,  if  the  sacred 
volume  were  accessible  to  all,  it  Avould  cease  to  be  regarded 
with  proper  reverence,  and  such  as  were  unlearned  and  unstable 
would  wrest  its  doctrines  to  their  own  destruction.  And  as 
there  was  equal  danger  from  the  reading  of  many  other  books, 
that  militated  more  or  less  against  the  interests  of  the  papacy, 
all  these  were  equally  prohibited,  and  their  titles  entered  into 
a  catalogue  entitled  Index  Eximrgatorius.     This  celebrated 

*  Henke  Kirch.  Gesch.  Bd.  iiL  p.  28. 


40  HISTORY   OF   THE 

Index  consists  of  two  parts  ;  viz.,  the  Index  Uhrorum  j^rohihi- 
torum,  containing  a  list  of  the  books  which  were  wholly  pro- 
hibited ;  and  the  Index  Uhrorum  eximrgandorum,  being  a  list 
of  such  as  were  to  be  carefully  examined,  and  purged  of  all 
offensive  passages,  before  permission  should  be  given  to  read 
them.  The  former  includes  all  the  writings  of  reputed  here- 
tics ;  in  the  latter  were  contained  the  works  of  writers  who 
were  not  denounced  as  heretics,  but  who  had,  unfortunately, 
sometimes  written  with  more  freedom  than  was  now  consistent 
with  the  church's  safety.  Father  Paul  Sarpi,  who  was  him- 
self a  Catholic,  says,  in  his  history  of  the  council  of  Trent, 
"  The  inquisition  went  so  far,  that  it  made  a  catalogue  of  sixty- 
two  printers,  and  prohibited  all  books  printed  by  them,  of 
whatever  author,  art,  or  idiom ;  with  an  addition  of  more 
weight,  that  is,  and  books  printed  by  such  printers  as  have 
printed  books  of  heretics ;  so  that  there  scarcely  remained  a 
book  to  read."*  This  was,  indeed,  going  to  the  root  of  the 
apprehended  mischief;  and  so  far  as  these  measures  could  be 
carried  into  effect,  they  could  not  easily  fail  of  being  success- 
ful in  keeping  the  people  in  perfect  ignorance  of  whatever  it 
was  not  the  interest  of  the  church  that  they  should  know,  and 
thus  securing  their  complete  subjection  to  their  spiritual  rulers. 
They  could  not,  however,  be  employed  everywhere,  or  every- 
where carried  into  full  effect :  and  where  the  light  was  per- 
mitted to  enter,  and  men's  minds  were  left  free  to  examine 
for  themselves,  and  to  indulge  their  convictions,  there  the 
hierarchy  fell. 

The  Keformation  is  among  the  most  important  events 
which  history  has  recorded.  Its  influence  was  not  confined  to 
religion,  but  extended  to  all  the  great  interests  of  mankind, 
and  produced  a  most  beneficent  change,  both  in  the  character 
and  the  condition  of  the  people,  in  all  the  countries  over  which 
it  was  permitted  to  spread.  It  delivered  them  from  a  most 
odious,  and  debasing,  and  soul-destroying  tyranny,  restored 
the  freedom  of  thought,  that  precious  property  of  a  rational 

*  Hist,  of  the  Council  of  Trent,  b.  vi.  p.  463. 


GERMAN   REFORMED    CHURCH.  41 

nature,  gave  a  new  impulse  to  intellectual  activity,  and  brought 
the  energies  of  the  mind  to  act,  in  their  native  vigor,  in  every 
field  of  discovery,  and  upon  every  subject  of  human  knowledge. 
As  the  Reformation  itself  was  the  offspring  of  returning  lite- 
rature and  science,  so  it  became,  in  its  turn,  a  most  powerful 
auxiliary  in  their  farther  advancement.  They  can  flourish 
only  where  freedom  of  investigation  on  all  subjects  is  es- 
tablished ;  and  they  languish  and  decay  where  thought  is 
enslaved,  and  compelled  to  follow  in  the  path  where  supersti- 
tion, or  bigotry,  or  other  forms  of  selfishness  lead  the  way. 
Hitherto  the  claims  of  the  church,  and  the  lordly  domination 
of  the  priesthood,  had  held  the  minds  of  men  in  a  cruel  bond- 
age, compared  with  which  the  condition  of  a  slave  is  freedom': 
in  his  case  the  body  is  bound,  while  his  thoughts  and  his  con- 
victions are  free ;  but  here,  an  inexorable  power  had  enslaved 
the  soul,  and  drawn  its  chains  and  raised  its  barriers  around 
every  faculty  of  the  mind.  "  The  Reformation,"  says  a  popu- 
lar author,  "rent  asunder  these  bonds,  and  cast  down  these 
barriers  to  the  free  circulation  of  thought:  where  she  pre- 
vailed, nothing  was  interdicted,  but  those  productions  which 
would  be  offensive  to  public  morals  and  decency.  Is  there 
need  of  any  thing  more  than  a  remembrance  of  those  chains, 
those  barriers,  that  barbarism,  which  would  still  have  continued 
long  to  confine  and  oppress  the  world,  in  order  to  show,  in  the 
full  blaze  of  its  light,  the  powerful  co-operation  of  the  Re- 
formation in  the  furtherance  and  spread  of  mental  culture  and 
illumination  ?  When  she  had  prepared  the  way,  men  could 
boldly  discuss  the  most  sacred  interests,  and  speak  as  men  of 
human  things.  '  Subject  thyself  to  the  decision  of  the  church,' 
said  the  adherent  of  Eome.  'Examine,'  said  the  Protestant, 
*and  submit  only  to  thy  convictions.'  The  former  demanded 
implicit  faith :  the  latter  teaches,  with  the  apostle,  to  prove 
all  things,  and  to  hold  fast  that  which  is  good."* 

The  proposition.  That  the  Bible  is  the  only  rule  of  faith  and 
practice  in  the  church  of  O-od,  is  the  fundamental  principle  of 

*  Villars  Darstellungen  der  Reformation,  p.  161. 
i>2  6 


42  HISTORY   OF   THE 

the  Reformation.  "  That  Christians  are  not  bound  by  any 
doctrines  which  are  not  supported  by  the  clear  words  of  Jesus 
Christ,  the  apostles,  and  the  prophets ;  that  no  man,  and  no 
assembly  of  teachers  have  authority  to  prescribe  new  articles 
of  faith,  or  have  a  claim  to  infallibility  in  matters  of  religion ; 
that  liberty  of  conscience,  and  the  right  to  investigate  religious 
truth,  are  not  the  prerogatives  of  any  particular  order,  but 
belong  to  every  believer,  whether  of  the  clergy  or  the  laity ; 
that  all  those  who,  setting  aside  the  doctrines  and  command- 
ments of  men,  receive  the  doctrine  of  Jesus  Christ  and  his 
apostles  in  faith,  cheerfully  put  their  trust  therein,  and  live 
conformably  to  it,  of  whatever  party  or  name  they  may  be, 
constitute  the  Catholic,  Christian  church ;  that  the  true  church 
of  Christ  subsists  wherever  the  pure  word  of  God  is  preached, 
the  sacraments  are  administered  agreeably  to  Christ's  institu- 
tion, and  Christian  discipline  is  observed : — these  were  the 
principles  in  which  all  Protestants  were  agreed.  Such  an 
authority,  so  firm  and  independent  of  man,  said  they,  there 
must  be  in  the  Christian  church :  otherwise  the  church  would 
be  without  a  foundation,  or  a  connection  of  parts ;  since  hu- 
man teachers  often  contradict  one  another,  and  philosophy 
changes  her  views  and  her  principles  with  every  age.  What 
the  popes,  or  councils,  or  single  ecclesiastics  have  prescribed, 
as  articles  of  faith,  beside  the  teaching  of  the  Holy  Scripture, 
is  human  invention,  and  can  aiford  neither  safety  nor  tran- 
quillity to  the  conscience."*  When  it  was  argued,  that  private 
interpreters  of  the  Scriptures  are  not  agreed  about  their  mean- 
ing, and  that  a  multitude  of  conflicting  interpretations  of  the 
same  passage  are  given,  and  the  question  was  asked,  Who  shall 
determine  the  true  sense  of  the  Scriptures  amidst  this  variety 
of  opinions  ?  the  reformers  answered,  "  Not  the  pope  ;  not  a 
council ;  not  the  fathers ;  but  the  Scripture  itself,  by  collating 
one  passage  with  another."  In  the  public  disputation  at  Zu- 
rich, in  1523,  the  vicar  of  the  bishop  of  Constance,  John 
Faber,  appealed  to  the  universities  of  Paris,   Cologne,  and 

*  J.  G.  MuUer's  Reliquien,  Th.  iii.  p.  62. 


GERMAN   REFORMED    CHURCH.  43 

Freyhurg.  Zwingle  replied,  "  I  admit  no  judge  but  the  divine 
Scripture,  as  it  has  spoken  and  declared  by  the  spirit  of  God : 
before  you  overturn  one  article  of  the  Scripture,  the  earth 
must  be  dissolved;  for  it  is  God's  word."  The  council  of 
Zurich  declared,  in  1524,  "  That  the  free  word  of  God,  and 
the  conscience  of  man,  is  not  to  be  bound  by  any  council,  but 
is  to  rule  over,  judge,  and  rightly  inform  all  men :  it  is  the 
duty  of  all  men  to  hearken  to  what  the  word  of  God  says  to 
them  ;  but  the  word  of  God  is  not  to  hearken  to  what  men  say 
to  it."*  Luther  took  the  same  ground,  and  maintained  it  in 
the  face  of  every  danger.  His  only  reason  for  refusing  to 
retract  what  he  had  written,  when  he  stood  before  the  diet  of 
Worms,  was  this  one :  "  It  is  the  word  of  God,  and  my  con- 
science." The  conscience  is  a  sanctuary  into  which  God  alone 
has  a  right  to  enter.  All  human  attempts  to  force  it  are  as 
profane  as  they  are  tyrannical :  and  the  authors  of  such  vio- 
lations prove  nothing  by  their  attempts  but  their  ignorance 
of  the  religion  about  which  they  profess  to  be  zealous,  or  their 
hypocrisy  and  wickedness. 

*  J.  G.  Muller's  Keliquien,  TIi.  iii.  pp.  66-70. 


THE  HISTORY 


llrformrh  CJiiirrlr  in  Imitjerlanb, 

FROM  THE  BIKTH  OF  ZWINGLE  TO  THE  TRIUMPH  OP  THE  GOSPEL  IN  ZURICH 

IN  1525. 


BOOK  I. 


CHAPTER  I. 

STATE  OF  SWITZERLAND— BIRTH  AND  EDUCATION  OF  ZWINGLE. 

Switzerland,  or  the  Confederacy,  [Die  Eidgenossenscliaft,) 
as  it  was  called  by  its  patriotic  citizens,  was  an  established 
free  state  in  the  earliest  times  of  the  sixteenth  century,  although 
its  independence  had  not  yet  been  acknowledged  by  the  Aus- 
trian emperors.  It  was  composed  of  thirteen  cantons,  namely, 
Zurich,  Bern,  Lucern,  Uri,  8chiveitz,  Unterwalden,  Zug, 
Gflarus,  Freyhurg,  Soleure,  Basel,  Scliaffhausen  and  Apjjen- 
zell.  These  were  independent  states,  each  of  which  not  only 
managed  its  own  internal  affairs  as  it  pleased,  but  might  even 
form  alliances  with  neighboring  states,  wage  war,  and  make 
treaties  of  peace.  But  for  the  common  defence  and  safety, 
they  were  united  in  a  confederation,  which  was  represented 
by  a  diet  composed  of  the  delegates  of  the  several  cantons. 
In  the  diet,  every  canton  had  one  vote.  The  acts  of  this 
deliberative  assembly  were,  however,  only  advisory,  and  did 
not  obligate  the  several  cantons  without  their  own  consent. 
Beside  the  thirteen  cantons,  there  were  also  other  free  states 
that  had  been,  at  different  times,  admitted  into  the  confederacy 
as  allies,  or,  as  they  were  called  in  German,  zugewandte  ;  and 
U 


GERMAN   REFORMED   CHURCH.  45 

others  in  alliance  with  one  or  more  of  the  cantons.  Of  these 
were  the  county  of  Valais,  the  three  leagues  of  the  Grisons, 
the  abbey  of  St.  Gf-all,  the  free  cities  of  jSt.  Crall,  Bienne  or 
Biel,  3fuJilhausen  in  Alsace,  Rothiveil  in  Suahia,  and  the 
principality  of  Neuf-chatel.  And  there  were,  moreover,  a 
number  of  territories  and  cities  or  towns  that  were  subject  to 
one  or  more  of  the  cantons,  but  were  provided  with  their  own 
internal  governments ;  as,  for  example,  the  counties  of  Toggen- 
hurg,  Rheinthal,  Thurgau,  &c.,  the  cities  of  Wesen,  Utznachj 
Rapperscliiveil,  &c. 

Of  all  the  countries  of  Europe,  there  was  none,  probably,  at 
the  commencement  of  the  sixteenth  century,  more  sincerely 
devoted  to  the  pope  than  Switzerland.  In  general,  the  Swiss 
were  so  zealously  affected  toward  the  holy  see,  and  regarded 
with  so  much  reverence  whatever  the  pope  decreed  respecting 
religion,  the  clergy,  or  the  ceremonies  of  the  church,  that  a 
defection  from  him,  or  even  an  impressive  contradiction  to  any 
of  his  commands,  was  hardly  to  be  less  expected  among  any 
other  people.  Conscientiously  scrupulous  about  the  smallest 
matters,  the  several  cantons  had,  in  the  early  part  of  the 
fifteenth  century,  purchased  from  the  pope  a  license  to  use  a 
milk  diet  during  the  fasts ;  and  in  1497,  the  canton  of  Bern 
petitioned  the  vicar  of  the  bishop  of  Lausanne  for  a  confirma- 
tion of  this  favor  to  some  of  their  parishes.  The  two  cantons 
of  Zurich  and  Bern  were  still  more  strongly  attached  to  the 
holy  see  than  any  others  of  their  fellow  confederates.  In 
Zurich  the  papal  nuncio  had  his  residence;  and  his  court 
spared  neither  flatteries,  nor  offices,  nor  presents  to  rivet  the 
friendship  of  this  canton.  A  citizen  of  Zurich  was  honored 
with  the  command  of  the  pope's  body-guard ;  and  the  Zurich- 
ians  continued  to  grant  troops  to  Leo  X.  when  all  the  other 
cantons  refused  a  compliance  with  his  request.  Bern  de- 
meaned itself  more  humbly  still.  When  Alexander  VI.,  in 
1502,  proclaimed  an  after-jubilee,  with  the  indulgences  per- 
taining to  it,  and  cardinal  Raymund  had  twice  solicited  the 
cantons  to  authorize  the  proclamation  in  their  dominions, 
Bern  was  the  only  one  that  consented ;  and  when  the  emperor, 


46  HISTORY   OF  THE 

Frederick  III.,  refused  to  CDnfirm  their  privileges,  the  Bernese 
turned  from  him  to  the  pope,  and  alleged,  as  their  reason,  that 
the  emperor  himself  derived  his  authority  from  the  vicegerent 
of  Christ. ' 

But,  although  the  popes  ruled  in  Sivitzerland  with  almost 
unbounded  sway,  there  were  not  wanting  discontents,  and  even 
loud  complaints,  which  arose  on  account  of  the  troubles  of 
secular  governments  that  were  created  by  popish  intrigues, 
and,  more  frequently,  against  the  avarice  and  licentiousness 
of  the  clergy.  In  1477,  the  canton  of  Bern  complained  to  the 
bishop  of  Lausanne  of  the  dissolute  lives  of  his  clergy,  repre- 
senting that  they  were  most  scandalously  voluptuous  and 
unchaste,  and  would  the  less  endure  the  restraints  of  the  civil 
ordinances  because  they  were  so  leniently  dealt  with  by  the 
spiritual  court.  Similar  complaints  were  preferred,  in  1500, 
by  the  governments  of  Bern  and  Freyhurg  against  the  monks 
of  Crranson.  Charges  of  this  kind,  with  particular  specifica- 
tions of  gross  scandals,  continued  to  be  urged :  and  it  seemed 
that  the  clergy  of  all  ranks  were  encouraged,  by  the  devout- 
ness  of  the  people,  to  transgress  all  the  bounds  of  decency  in 
this  country  more  impudently  than  elsewhere.  But,  while  the 
people  looked  with  abhorrence  upon  these  disorders,  they  did 
not  suspect  that  the  religion,  which  so  depraved  a  clergy 
taught,  might  itself  be  corrupt ;  and  they  continued,  therefore, 
to  regard  all  its  institutions  with  profound  veneration.* 

The  most  luminous  spot  in  Szvitzerland  wSiS  the  city  oi  Basel 
It  contained  a  university,  the  only  one  in  the  country,  founded 
in  1460,  and  was  the  stated  or  occasional  residence  of  a  num- 
ber of  learned  men,  distinguished  equally  by  their  talents  and 
their  attainments  in  literature.  Here  Thomas  Wittenbach, 
of  Bienne,  taught  theology  since  1505,  and  imparted  to  his 
pupils  many  of  the  views  in  religion  which  were  afterwards 
exhibited  by  the  reformers.  Here  Wolfgang  Fabricius  Capito 
was  the  cathedral  preacher  from  1512  to  1520,  a  man  of  the 

*  Schroeck's  Kirch.  Gesch.  seit  der  Reformation,  vol.  i.  p.  23,  vol.  ii. 
p.  104,  &c. 


GERMAN   REFORMED   CHURCH.  47 

same  spirit  as  Wittenbach.  Here  Erasmus,  of  Rotterdam, 
published  his  editions  of  the  Greek  Testament,  and  other 
works.  To  these  illustrious  men  we  may  add  Beatus  Rhenanus, 
Hen^icus  Glareanus,  Conrad  Pellicanus,  Oswald  Myconius, 
and  William  Nesen  of  Grlarus  ;  all  of  whom  enjoyed  a  shining 
reputation  in  the  Avorld  of  letters,  and  honored  this  city  more 
or  less  with  their  presence.* 

The  Reformed  church,  as  distinguished  from  the  papal,  is 
essentially  the  primitive  Christian  church,  in  her  doctrines, 
sacraments,  ministry  and  worship.  After  groaning  for  ages 
under  a  perpetually  increasing  mass  of  earthly  and  corrupting 
additions,  she  owes  her  deliverance,  under  God,  to  that  reform- 
ation of  which  Ulric  Zwingle  and  his  fellow-laborers  were  the 
honored  instruments.  Zurich,  in  the  canton  of  the  same 
name,  is  commonly  considered  the  birthplace  of  that  event ; 
and  its  date,  the  first  day  of  January,  1519,  the  day  on  which 
Zwingle  preached  his  celebrated  introductory  sermon  in  the 
cathedral  of  that  city,  and  declared  that  he  would  expound 
the  word  of  God,  and  make  it  alone  the  basis  of  his  instruc- 
tions, regardless  of  human  inventions.  The  commencement 
of  Zwingle's  reforming  efforts  was,  indeed,  several  years  earlier, 
but  his  public  announcement  of  his  purpose  to  reform  was 
made  on  that  day.  That  introductory  sermon  was  the  com- 
mencement of  a  series  of  expository  discourses  on  the  Holy 
Scriptures,  and  of  a  system  of  operations  in  the  city  and 
canton  of  Zurich,  by  which  a  ferment  was  produced  that 
eventuated,  after  a  struggle  of  six  years,  in  the  complete 
downfall  of  popery,  by  the  abolition  of  the  mass  in  that  canton. 
It  was  a  sermon  of  unusual  power.  The  preacher's  exhibitions 
of  truth  went  to  the  heart.  Both  his  doctrine  and  his  manner 
were  new.  He  urged  what  he  said  in  a  manner  which  showed 
how  deeply  he  felt  both  the  truth  and  the  importance  of  his 
doctrine.  The  chief  men  of  the  state,  whom  the  insipid 
legendary  tales  of  the  priests  and  monks  had  disgusted  with 
the  service  of  the  church,  now  felt  a  new  interest  in  the  gospel, 
1 

*  Gieseler's  Lehrb.  der  Kirch.  Gesch.  vol.  iii.  th.  1,  p.  130. 


48  HISTORY   OF   THE 

and  became  his  assiduous  hearers.  "  God  be  thanked,"  said 
they,  "  this  is  an  apostolic  preacher.  This  man  tells  us  how 
the  truth  is :  instead  of  human  fripperies,  he  preaches  the 
pure  gospel  faithfully."  , 

BIRTH   AND   EDUCATION   OF   ZWINGLE. 

The  chief  of  the  Swiss  reformers,  and  the  founder  of  the 
Helvetic  Reformed  church,  was  Ulric  Zwingle, — in  German, 
Huldreich  ZAvingli.  He  was  born  in  Wildhaus,  one  of  the 
highest  mountain  villages,  in  the  county  of  ToJcenburg,  now 
included  in  the  canton  of  St.  Gfall,  on  the  first  of  January, 
1484.  He  was  the  sixth  of  eight  sons.*  His  father,  Hul- 
dreich Zwingli,  was  the  amman,  or  magistrate  of  the  village, 
and  bore  the  reputation  of  a  scrupulously  upright  man.  Both 
of  his  parents  were  descended  from  an  honorable  line  of  an- 
cestors. A  decision  of  the  abbot  of  St.  Crall,  lord  of  Token- 
hurg,  having  disjoined  Wildhaus  from  Crams,  the  mother- 
church,  and  constituted  it  a  separate  parish,  the  parishioners 
elected  Zwingle's  uncle,  Bartholomew  Zwingli,  as  their  first 
pastor,  who  presided  over  this  parish  until  1487,  when  he  was 
translated  to  Wesen,  and  appointed  dean  of  the  chapter.  His 
maternal  uncle,  Johannes  Meili,  was  abbot  of  the  convent  of 
Fishingen,  in  Thu7'gau,  from  1510  to  1523.  Beside  his  seven 
brothers,  he  had  one  sister,  who  became  the  wife  of  Leonhard 
Tremp,  a  zealous  friend  of  the  Reformation  in  Bern. 

From  the  first  opening  of  his  mind,  Zwingle  gave  such  indi- 
cations of  talent  of  a  high  order,  that  he  was,  in  his  early 
youth,  destined  by  his  parents  to  a  learned  profession.  He 
was  placed  under  the  care  of  his  uncle  in  Wesen,  whose  piety 
and  afi"ection  constituted  him  a  safe  and  useful  guardian  to 
the  tender  ward.  Here  Zwingle  received  the  instructions  of 
a  schoolmaster,  under  whose  direction  he  progressed  with  so 
much  rapidity,  that  it  soon  became  expedient  to  place  him 
under  a  higher  grade  of  discipline.     This  development  of 


*  According  to  Schuler ;  but,  according  to  S.  Voegelin,  the  third.     See 
Voegelin's  Jahrtafel  von  Zwingli's  Leben. 


GERMAN   REFORMED    CHURCH.  49 

extraordinary  capacity  determined  both  the  father  and  uncle 
to  make  every  possible  exertion  to  furnish  the  promising  chiki 
witli  all  the  requisite  opportunities  for  his  future  education. 

In  the  tenth  year  of  his  age,  he  was  sent  to  the  Theodore 
school,  in  Basel,  which  was  then  under  the  care  of  Gregorius 
Bingli,  a  learned  and  amiable  teacher,  who  was  equally  distin- 
guished by  his  literary  qualifications  and  his  winning  mildness 
in  the  treatment  of  his  pupils.  The  speedy  progress  of  the 
lad  in  the  studies  of  this  primary  school  secured  to  him,  in  a 
peculiar  manner,  the  affection  of  his  teacher,  who,  in  a  short 
time,  sent  him  home  to  his  father  and  uncle  with  the  warmest 
commendations,  and  advised  them  to  place  him  at  an  institu- 
tion where  he  could  be  furnished  with  higher  instructions  than 
his  own  school  could  afford.  He  was  now  sent  to  the  Latin 
school  of  Henry  Lupulus,  in  Ber^i.  Lupulus  had  acquired 
reputation  as  a  poet,  and  was  the  first  who  opened  a  school 
for  classical  education  in  Sioitzerland.  Under  his  direction, 
Zwingle  formed  an  acquaintance  with  the  great  models  of  an- 
cient Rome  in  history,  eloquence  and  poetry,  gathered  from 
them  the  rich  stores  of  antiquity,  and  formed  his  own  taste, 
his  judgment,  and  his  style  of  composition.  Lupulus  was  a 
bigoted  papist,  but  ultimately  became  a  zealous  friend  and 
promoter  of  the  reformation.  He  outlived  his  pupil,  and 
honored  his  memory  with  a  fivefold  epitaph  in  verse.* 

After  spending  two  years  in  these  studies  in  Bern,  Zwingle 
removed  to  the  university  of  Vienna,  where  he  spent  two  other 
years  in  forming  an  acquaintance  with  the  philosophy  which 
then  reigned  in  the  schools.  "It  was  happy  for  him,"  says 
Schuler,  "  that  he  did  not  apply  himself  to  this  study  until 
he  had  been  exercised  six  years  under  eminent  teachers  in 
acquiring  a  knowledge  of  languages,  and  had  formed  an  ac- 
quaintance with  the  masterpieces  of  Rome,  by  which  he  was 
secured  against  the  loss  of  his  common  sense  in  those  cobwebs 
of  scholastic  systems,  which  were  then  called  philosophy." 
This  philosophy  was,  however,  a  part  of  a  learned  education^ 

*  J.  M.  Schuler's  Huldreich  Zwingli,  p.  1-12. 
E  7 


50  HISTORY   OF   THE 

and  an  acquaintance  with  its  knotty  questions,  its  captious 
distinctions,  and  its  perplexing  labyrinths,  was  esteemed  a 
necessary  qualification  for  a  public  disputer.  But  Zwingle 
did  not  confine  his  attention  to  these  arid  and  withering 
studies,  in  which  a  mind  like  his  could  not  have  found  much 
enjoyment.  He  attended,  also,  to  astronomy  and  physics,  and 
did  not  omit  the  prosecution  of  his  favorite  classics. 

About  the  year  1,501,  or  1502,  he  was  called  home  by  his 
father.  But  the  desire  of  farther  intellectual  culture  soon 
took  him  again  to  Basel,  where,  uniting  the  office  of  teaching 
with  the  labor  of  study,  he  procured  by  the  latter  the  means 
of  pursuing  the  former,  and  thus  relieved  his  father  from  the 
burden  of  continued  expense.  Though  but  eighteen  years  of 
age,  and  a  stranger,  he  was  appointed  teacher  of  the  school 
of  St.  Martin  in  Basel,  where  he  gave  instruction  in  languages. 
At  the  same  time  he  improved  his  knowledge  of  philosophy, 
and  his  acquaintance  with  the  treasures  of  Roman  literature ; 
but  when  Thomas  Wittenbach  came  to  Basel,  near  the  close 
of  1505,  as  professor  of  tl^eology  in  that  university,  Zwingle 
attended  his  theological  instructions,  and  abandoned  the  bar- 
ren waste  of  a  false  and  profitless  philosophy :  and  here  he 
formed  his  cordial  and  lasting  intimacy  with  Leo  Juda,  a 
kindred  spirit,  who  Avas  his  fellow  student.* 

Wittenbach  was  an  original  thinker,  endowed  with  an  acute 
and  penetrating  mind,  and  furnished  with  all  the  learning 
which  was  attainable  in  that  age.  He  may  be  justly  con- 
sidered as  having  sown  the  first  seed  of  evangelical  truth  in 
the  minds  of  his  pupils.  Leo  Juda  says  of  him,  in  his  intro- 
duction to  Zwingle's  annotations  on  the  New  Testament,  "He 
was  singularly  practiced  in  every  species  of  knowledge,  and, 
un  account  of  his  various  learning,  was  regarded  by  the 
most  learned  men  of  this  age  as  a  wonder  and  an  astonish- 
ment,  and  as  some  phoenix  rising  from  its  ashes.  Under  his 
instructions,  both  Zwingle  and  I,  pursuing  our  studies  in  Basel 
at  one  and  the  same  time,  about  the  year  1505,  were  formed, 

*  Schuler's  Huldreicli  Zwingli,  p.  14,  &c. 


I  GERMAN   REFORMED    CHURCH.  51 

not  only  in  elegant  literature,  in  -which  he  was  excellently 
skilled,  but  also  in  the  truth  of  the  gospel.  For  as  that  man,  > 
beside  a  surpassing  eloquence,  possessed  an  acute  genius,  he 
foresaw  and  surmised  many  things  which  were  afterwards  first 
published  by  others ;  for  example,  respecting  popish  indul- 
gences, and  other  things,  by  which  the  Roman  pontiff  set  a 
foolish  world  mad  during  so  many  ages.  From  this  man  we 
have  drawn  all  that  we  possess  of  solid  learning,  and  all  this 
we  owe  to  him."*  Rudolph  Guallther,  Zwingle's  son-in-law, 
speaks  thus  of  him,  in  his  preface  to  the  first  part  of  the  homi- 
lies on  Matthew :  "  He  not  only  restored  the  study  of  useful 
learning  and  the  liberal  arts,  but  also  condemned  openly  many 
points  of  the  popish  doctrines  concerning  sacraments,  indul- 
gences, and  monastic  vows,  and  used  to  tell  the  young  men 
that  the  time  was  not  far  distant  when  the  scholastic  theology 
must  be  abolished,  and  the  ancient  doctrine  of  the  church, 
taught  by  the  orthodox  fathers  and  the  Holy  Scriptures, 
restored,  "f  Zwingle  himself  says,  in  his  explanation  of  his 
eighteenth  thesis,  that  he  had  learned  from  Wittenbach  that 
the  doctrine  of  indulgences  was  a  fraud  and  imposture ;  and 
in  his  Arnica  Exegesis  ad  LutJierum,  the  death  of  Christ  was 
the  only  ground  of  the  remission  of  sins :  solam  Christi  mor- 
tem pretium  esse  reniissionis  peccatoruni-X 

Wittenbach  came  to  Basel  from  the  university  of  Tuebingcn, 
where  Reuchlin  had  kindled  an  enthusiasm  for  ancient  litera- 
ture, and  Pellicanus  w\is  then  explaining  the  Holy  Scriptures, 
and  the  acute  Gabriel  Biel,  the  last  of  the  scholastic  divines, 
taught  and  vindicated  his  thorny  system.  In  Basel  be  began 
to  teach  a  purer  theology,  and  to  expose  some  of  the  corrup- 
tions of  religion.  He  docs  not  appear,  however,  to  have 
addressed  his  new  doctrines  to  the  people,  but  to  have  con- 
fined them  to  the  precincts  of  the  university  and  the  circle  of 
his  friends ;  and  much  of  what  he  said  was  spoken  in  confi- 
dence to  his  pupils.     Zwingle  entertained  for  him  the  utmost 

*  Gieseler's  Lehrl).  &c.,  vol.  iii.  part  1,  p.  131. 
t  Ibid.  J  Ibid. 


52  HISTORY   OF   THE 

affection  and  reverence  to  the  end  of  his  life,  maintained  a 
correspondence  with  him,  and  was  often  strengthened  by  his 
counsels  in  the  times  of  his  own  conflicts. 

It  was  at  this  time  also  that  ZAvingle  formed  his  acquaint- 
iinco  and  confidential  friendship  with  Capito,  who,  in  1504, 
obtained  here  the  honorary  degree  of  doctor  in  theology  : 
"  a  man,"  says  Schuler,  "who  united  the  utmost  freedom  of 
thought  with  a  mild  toleration,  and  joined  a  forbearing  pru- 
dence with  an  ardent  zeal  for  truth  and  a  fearless  profession 
and  furtherance  of  it."* 


CHAPTER    11. 

ZWINGLE'S  MINISTRY  IN  GLARUS,  FROM  1506  TO  1516. 

ZwiNGLE  spent  four  years  in  Basel,  in  the  double  capacity 
of  teacher  and  student.  Although  he  had  obtained  the  hono- 
rai'y  degree  of  magister,  he  had  not  yet  been  ordained  to  the 
priesthood.  Nevertheless,  the  congregation  of  Gflarus,  the 
capital  of  the  canton  of  the  same  name,  elected  him  to  preside 
over  their  parish  in  the  place  of  their  recently  deceased  pastor, 
Johannes  Stucki.  It  is  probable  that  he  was  recommended 
to  them  by  his  uncle,  the  pastor  of  Wesen,  which  city  was, 
of  ancient  times,  the  market  of  the  Glareans.  His  election 
was  a  triumph  of  liberty  over  the  usurpations  of  the  pope, 
who  had  attempted  to  deprive  the  people  of  the  right  of 
choosing  their  own  minister ;  for,  immediately  after  the  death 
of  the  aged  pastor,  a  certain  Henry  Goeldli,  of  a  distinguished 
family  in  Zurich,  who  already  possessed  several  livings,  ap- 
peared with  a  popish  certificate  of  appointment  to  the  parish, 
and  claimed  the  ofiice  and  emoluments  of  the  pastorate.  The 
congregation,  however,  insisted  upon  their  rights,  and,  passing 

*  Schuler,  &c.,  p.  23. 


GERMAN   REFORMED    CHURCH.  53 

by  the  creature  of  the  pope,  chose  Zw-ingle  to  the  vacant 
living.  He  gladly  accepted  the  appointment,  and,  having 
now  received  his  ordination  to  the  priesthood  from  the  bishop 
of  Constance,  repaired  to  his  new  situation  toward  the  close 
of  the  year  1506.  His  duties  here  were  many  and  onerous; 
for,  beside  the  capital,  his  charge  included  three  other  parishes, 
and  comprised  nearly  a  third  part  of  the  canton.  Goeldli,  in 
the  mean  time,  continued  to  urge  his  claims  to  the  revenues 
of  the  benefice,  on  the  ground  of  papal  authority,  and  relin- 
quished them  only  in  consideration  of  an  annual  pension.* 

What  idea  Zwingle  entertained  of  the  pastoral  office,  ap- 
pears from  the  course  he  marked  out  for  himself,  and  steadily 
pursued.  "He  becomes  a  priest,"  says  Myconius,  "and 
now,  contrary  to  the  usual  way  of  priests,  he  yields  himself 
wholly  to  his  studies,  especially  to  that  of  theology.  Now  he 
first  rightly  apprehends  how  much  he,  who  is  intrusted  with 
the  instruction  of  the  people  in  divine  truth,  ought  himself  to 
know ;  how  he  ought  himself,  before  all  things,  to  be  furnished 
with  theological  knowledge,  and  then  to  possess  eloquence 
also,  that  he  may  be  enabled  to  exhibit  every  thing  both  truly 
and  profitably,  agreeably  to  the  capacities  of  his  hearers.  To 
these  studies  he  applied  himself  with  a  diligence  of  which 
there  had  been  no  previous  example  in  many  years ;  as  also 
none,  even  of  the  best  speakers  of  our  times,  was  so  complete 
a  master  of  oratory.  He  was,  however,  not  in  Cicero's  manner: 
he  would  not  express  himself  exactly  in  accordance  with  the 
rules  of  the  ancients,  but  freely,  in  the  manner  best  suited  to  his 
times,  and  to  the  people  within  his  sphere  of  action  :  and  thus 
he  succeeded  with  us,  as  did  Tully  with  those  of  his  own  times." 

"  He  wrought  his  learned  acquisitions,"  says  Schuler, 
"  into  lucid  instructions,  intelligible  and  useful  to  the  people, 
and  from  his  public  discourses  always  returned  to  his  studies. 
His  principle,  at  this  time  already,  was:  Theology  must  be 
draivn  from  the  Holy  Scriptures :  not  from  human  systems 
that  are,  or  profess  to  he,  built  ujjon  them.     The  Holy  Scrip- 


*  Schuler,  &c.,  p.  28, 
e2 


54  HISTORY   OF   THE 

tures  were  therefore  daily  liis  unintermitted  study.  At  an 
early  period,  his  scriptural  attainments  were  a  subject  of 
admiration,  and  procured  for  him  the  praise  of  a  perfect  inter- 
preter. But  this  did  not  beguile  him  to  entertain  the  same 
opinion  himself:  though  he  might  satisfy  others,  to  himself 
he  never  was  satisfactory.  lie  perceived  that  a  perfect  ac- 
quaintance with  the  sense  and  the  spirit  of  the  sacred  oracles 
could  be  obtained  only  by  a  perfect  knowledge  of  their  ori- 
ginal languages.  Wherefore,  disregarding  the  difficulties  that 
pressed  him,  he  applied  himself  with  ardor  to  the  study  of  the 
Greek  language.  Without  an  instructor,  with  the  translations 
and  the  defective  lexicons  only  of  that  period,  and,  during  a 
long  time,  even  without  a  very  manageable  grammar,  he 
nevertheless  mastered  it.  Such  was  his  devotion,  that  he 
wrote,  in  1513,  '  Nothing  can  again  withdraw  me  from  the 
study  of  Greek.'  " 

His  ardent  zeal  for  scriptural  knowledge  appears  from  the 
fact  that  he  wrote  out  a  copy  of  all  the  epistles  of  Paul  in  the 
Greek  text,  and  committed  them  to  memory.*  He  copied 
also  the  other  books  of  the  New  Testament,  and  finally  those 
of  the  Old  Testament.f  With  the  reading  of  the  Scriptures 
he  united  prayer  for  divine  guidance  and  illumination,  t]jiat 
he  might  be  enabled  to  apprehend  the  true  sense  of  the 
divine  word,  and  to  propound  it  profitably  to  the  people  in 
his  ministry.  But  he  was  far  from  the  vain  conceit  that 
prayer  would  supersede  his  other  exertions,  and  a  knowledge 
of  the  truth  would  be  communicated  by  immediate  inspiration 
without  study.  He  investigated  the  sense  of  the  inspired 
word,  independently  of  human  authority,  explaining  obscure 
passages  by  such  as  were  clear,  and  used,  with  discriminating 

*  This  was  completed  in  May,  1517,  consequently,  after  Ms  settlement  in 
Einsiedeln.  The  manuscript  was  presented  to  the  library  of  Zurich  in  1563, 
by  Anna  Zwingle,  the  last  of  the  Reformer's  descendants.  It  consists  of 
forty-three  sheets,  in  pocket  form,  with  large  margins,  which  are  filled  with 
notes  in  a  Tery  small  hand,  and  waS  designed  as  a  pocket  volume ;  the 
first  printed  editions  being  in  folio. 

f  Schuler,  &c.>  p.  3k 


GERMAN   llEPORMED    CHURCH.  55 

care,  the  labors  of  commentators.  He  read  the  Greek  and 
Latin  fathers,  Origen,  Chrysostom,  Jerome,  Ambrose,  and 
especially,  Augustin.  The  last  he  admired  for  the  boldness 
of  his  genius,  his  fervid  eloquence,  and  his  knowledge  of 
human  nature,  and  loved  still  more,  because  in  him  he  found 
his  own  favorite  doctrines  of  faith  and  redemption,  so  directly 
opposite  to  the  popish  doctrine  of  indulgences,  and  so  harmo- 
nious with  the  instructions  of  his  beloved  teacher  Wittenbach. 
The  remarks  of  the  fathers,  and  especially  the  annotations  of 
Erasmus,  he  wrote  upon  the  margin  of  his  Greek  text,  or  of 
the  Vulgate.  By  this  method  of  reading  the  fathers,  he  dis- 
covered their  variations  from  one  another  and  from  them- 
selves, their  frequent  contradictions,  and  their  mistakes  in  the 
interpretation  of  the  Bible.  His  veneration  for  them  sunk, 
and  he  felt  that  there  could  be  but  one  master,  even  Christ, 
from  whom  there  ought  to  be  no  appeal.  This  sentiment  was 
strengthened  when  he  read  the  scholastic  divines,  and  when 
he  compared  the  religion  of  his  own  times  with  the  Christianity 
of  the  primitive  ages,  to  which  he  was  conducted  by  the  study 
of  ecclesiastical  history.  The  light  thus  rose  upon  his  mind, 
and  opened  to  his  vision  new  fields  of  thought  and  of  spiritual 
activity,  and  showed  to  him  both  the  necessity  of  a  Reforma- 
tion, and  what  it  was  that  ought  to  be  reformed. 

Neither  was  he  afraid  to  read  the  works  of  reputed  heretics. 
Among  these  were  the  writings  of  Ratramus,  Gottschalk, 
Peter  Waldo,  John  Wickliffe,  John  Huss,  and  Johannes 
Picus  prince  oi  Mirandola.  "In  orthodox  writers,"  said  he, 
"  I  mark  the  tares  ;  in  heretics,  the  useful  plants  :  and  in  all, 
I  find  both  the  one  kind  and  the  other."  His  maxim  was: 
Truth,  by  tuhomsoever  uttered,  comes  from  Gfod  ;  and  he  was 
therefore  disposed  to  seek  it  in  every  accessible  source,  and  to 
embrace  it  wherever  found. 

With  the  study  of  the  Bible,  and  of  theological  writers,  he 
joined  that  of  the  Greek  and  Latin  classics  ;  for,  as  he  traced 
the  origin  of  all  moral  and  religious  truth  to  God,  he  believed 
that  in  them  also  were  to  be  found  revelations  of  God  to  man. 
He  used  them  for  illustration,  and  to  learn  from  them  the 


56  HISTORY   OF   THE 

richness  of  divine  mercy,  which  was  not  confined,  during  so 
many  ages,  to  a  single  nation,  but  manifested  itself  also,  in 
some  measure,  to  the  Gentile  world,  and  shined  in  its  dark- 
ness like  the  stars  that  twinkle  through  the  night.  These 
fine-wrought  models  of  genius,  moreover,  not  only  furnished 
his  mind  with  copious  stores  of  materials  for  every  useful  pur- 
pose, improved  his  judgment,  and  refined  his  taste,  but  pre- 
served him  also  from  vanity  and  self-gratulation  on  account 
of  any  productions  of  his  own.  He  was  an  enthusiastic  ad- 
mirer of  classic  antiquity,  perhaps  too  much  so,  and  read  with 
avidity  whatever  he  could  procure  of  its  literature.  Among 
his  favorites  were  Plato,  Aristotle,  Cicero,  and  Seneca  ;  Vale- 
rius Maximus  he  committed  to  memory,  and  Pindar  he  placed 
next  to  the  sacred  poets.* 

By  such  a  freedom  in  the  course  of  his  reading  and  study, 
and  by  his  silence  on  the  topics  which  gave  so  much  occupation 
to  the  common  crowd  of  priests  and  preaching  monks,  Zwingle 
incurred  the  displeasure  of  many  of  his  clerical  brethren,  who 
suspected  his  orthodoxy,  and  wished  to  make  him  suspected 
by  others.  During  all  this  time,  he  did  not  openly  attack  the 
errors  and  abuses  of  popery,  but  contented  himself  with  pre- 
senting to  the  people  the  practical  doctrines  of  the  Bible,  and 
communicating  his  sentiments  on  other  points  in  private  to  his 
intimate  friends.  The  dissatisfaction  of  zealous  Papists  was 
not  based  so  much  upon  what  he  did  say,  as  upon  what  he  did 
not  say.  He  said  nothing  about  the  saints,  the  efficacy  of  the 
holy  relics,  the  merit  of  pilgrimages,  the  glory  and  intercession 
of  the  virgin,  and  things  of  that  sort.  Myconius  says  of  his 
ministry :  "  In  the  mean  time,  he  so  promulgated  the  grace  of 
the  gospel,  that  he  made  no  mention,  or  very  sparingly,  of  the 
abuses  of  the  church  of  Rome.  He  wished  the  truth,  when 
known,  to  do  its  own  work  in  the  hearts  of  the  hearers ;  for 
truth  being  perceived  and  understood,  we  easily  discover  what 
is  false.  The  times,  however,  did  not  then  permit  him  to  act 
otherwise ;  for,  amidst  such  an  untowardness  and  wickedness 

*  Sclmler,  &c.,  p.  31,  &c. 


GERMAN   REFORMED    CHURCH.  57 

of  men,  it  was  more  likely  that  the  truth  would  perish,  than 
that  the  abuses  of  religion  would  be  removed."*  Indeed,  during 
his  ministry  in  Glarus,  and  especially  in  the  earlier  part  of  it, 
he  still  entertained  a  profound  veneration  for  the  church  and 
the  papacy,  and  regarded  the  military  succors  granted  to  the 
pope  by  the  Swiss  cantons  as  a  dutiful  protection  of  the  holy 
see.  This  appears  from  his  narrative  of  his  first  campaign  in 
Italy,  written  in  1512,  in  which  he  styles  the  church  the 
common  mother  of  Christian  believers,  and  the  pope  the  most 
blessed  vicar  of  Christ,  and  imputes  the  design  of  Lewis  XII. 
of  France,  to  create  an  antipope,  to  the  instigation  of  an  evil 
demon,  t  Before  the  year  1516  he  was  not  properly  a  reformer, 
but  in  a  course  of  preparation  for  that  office.  There  were 
errors  and  abuses  which  he  did  not  yet  see,  and  others  which 
he  saw  but  imperfectly ;  and  what  he  discerned  with  clearness 
he  did  not  yet  venture,  on  account  of  the  infelicity  of  the 
times,  to  say  openly.  Hence,  when  he  preached  in  Crlarus,  in 
1522,  he  told  his  hearers  that  he  had  formerly  taught  them 
many  human  commandments,  but  now  admonished  them  to 
adhere  exclusively  to  the  word  of  God.| 

Zwingle's  first  efi'orts  were  directed  to  a  political  and  moral 
reformation  of  his  country.  He  attacked,  with  great  force 
and  severity,  the  prevailing  and  pernicious  vices  of  the  times, 
and  especially  the  practice  of  accepting  pensions  from  foreign 
princes  for  political  subserviency,  and  of  serving  in  their 
armies  as  mercenaries,  in  wars  in  which  their  own  country 
had  no  interest  and  no  concern.  He  regarded  this  practice 
as  the  fountain  of  the  vice  and  wretchedness  which  inundated 
the  country,  and  as  a  bar,  while  it  continued,  to  a  reformation 
of  religion:  "For  he  saw,"  says  Myconius,  "that  there  would 
only  then  be  room  for  the  heavenly  doctrine,  when  this  foun-  , 
tain  of  all  evils  should  be  stopped. "§  "We  do  not  assent  to 
this  opinion  ;  and  Zwingle  himself  learned  by  experience  that 

*  Myconius  in  Gieseler's  Lehrb.  vol.  iii.  p.  1,  p.  136. 

f  Gieseler,  &c.,  p.  134. 

X  Ibid,  p.  13G. 

§  Gieseler's  Lehrb.  &c.,  p.  134. 


58  HISTORY   OF   THE 

he  had  begun  at  the  wrong  end.  It  was,  however,  extremely 
easy,  in  his  situation,  to  be  deceived  in  such  a  case. 

The  Swiss  were  a  warlike  people,  skilful  in  the  use  of  arms, 
renowned  for  great  achievements  in  the  field,  and  fond  of  what 
the  world  esteems  glory.  When  they  had  no  enemy  of  their 
own  to  contend  with,  they  entered  eagerly  into  the  military 
service  of  other  nations,  and  fought  the  battles  of  foreign 
princes  in  foreign  lands,  Avhere  it  often  happened  that  bands 
of  Swiss  fought  in  contending  armies  on  opposite  sides.  The 
cantons,  either  collectively  or  singly,  furnished  a  given  number 
of  troops  for  a  certain  consideration  in  money,  or  some  other 
equivalent ;  and  private  men  also,  the  pensioners  of  foreign 
rulers,  either  openly  or  secretly,  enlisted  bodies  of  men,  and 
led  them  away  to  join  the  armies  of  their  employers.  Military 
enthusiasm,  the  promise  of  rich  rewards,  and  the  prospect 
of  plunder,  prepared  multitudes,  especially  of  the  gay  and 
thoughtless  youth,  to  engage  in  these  enterprises.  Men  were 
thus  taken  away  from  useful  labor  at  home,  and,  if  they 
returned,  after  one  or  more  campaigns,  brought  with  them 
vices  unknown  before,  and  habits  that  disqualified  them  for 
any  peaceful  occupation  and  any  useful  purpose.  Their  trade 
was  fighting,  the  shedding  of  blood  was  their  sport,  and  sensual 
indulgence  their  enjoyment.  The  fields,  the  flocks,  the  useful 
arts  were  neglected,  and  fell  into  decay,  and  the  country  was 
overrun  by  an  idle  and  worthless  population,  who  Avere  fitted 
only  to  disturb  and  harass  the  virtuous  citizen. 

The  emperors  of  the  house  of  Austria,  the  kings  oi  France, 
and  the  pope,  the  holy  father,  were  the  rulers  in  whose  service 
the  Swiss  warriors  were  most  frequently  enlisted,  and  in  whose 
battles  their  blood  was  most  profusely  shed. 

During  a  long  period,  upper  Italy,  particularly  the  duchy 
of  Milan,  was  afflicted  with  wars,  and  in  a  state  of , the  utmost 
disorder.  The  emperor,  the  king  of  France,  and  the  native 
duke,  Lewis  Sforza,  contended  for  the  possession  of  this  beau- 
tiful country.  The  duke  had  perfidiously  made  himself  master 
of  the  duchy,  but  the  French  king,  Lewis  XIL,  had  taken 
him  prisoner,  and  subjected  the  country  to  his  own  power. 


GERMAN  REFORMED  CHURCH.  59 

Subsequently  the  pope,  the  emperor,  the  king  of  France^  and 
Ferdinand  of  Arragon  united  their  armies  in  the  league  of 
Cambray  against  the  republic  of  Venice^  with  the  design  of 
dissolving  its  constitution  and  partitioning  its  territories 
among  themselves.  The  last  days  of  this  once  powerful  state 
seemed  to  have  arrived ;  but  the  mutual  faithlessness  of  all 
the  allied  parties  saved  it  from  destruction.  The  pope, 
Julius  II.,  now  resolved  to  expel  the  French  from  Italy,  and 
to  place  Maximilian,  the  son  of  Lewis  Sforza,  upon  the  ducal 
throne.  For  this  purpose  he  sought  the  aid  of  the  Swiss,  and, 
in  1510,  effected  a  treaty  of  alliance  for  the  term  of  five  years. 
In  his  negotiations  with  them,  he  employed  the  agency  of 
Matthew  (or  Matthias)  Shinner,  bishop  of  /Sion.^  Shinner 
was  the  son  of  poor  parents,  but  rose  by  his  talents  and  a 
concurrence  of  fortunate  events  to  the  episcopal  dignity.  He 
was  ambitious,  warlike,  eloquent,  polished,  and  crafty ;  of  libe- 
ral sentiments,  but  of  loose  morals.  His  aspiring  mind  saw 
in  each  successive  elevation  only  a  stepping-place  to  higher 
dignities,  and  hoped  one  day  to  arrive  at  the  highest.  The 
king  of  France  having  refused  to  pay  the  large  sum  demanded 
by  him  as  the  price  of  his  services,  with  the  remark,  That  one 
man  was  surely  too  dear  at  such  a  price,  Shinner  took  offence 
at  this  pleasantry,  and  espoused  the  party  of  the  pope,  with 
a  determination  to  make  his  importance  felt  by  the  French 
king.  Julius  II.  soon  discovered  his  value,  and  by  a  profu- 
sion of  flattei'ies  gained  him  entirely  to  his  interests.  Shinner 
performed  the  business  assigned  him,  and  was  rewarded  by  the 
pope  with  a  cardinal's  hat,  which  new  dignity  prepared  him 
to  look  with  increased  expectation  to  the  papacy,  as  the  con- 
summation of  his  wishes ;  and  he  now  sought,  by  the  offers  of 
gold  and  splendid  promises  of  preferment,  to  attach  to  the 
pope  and  to  himself  every  man  of  weight  and  influence  in  the 
confederacy. 

Shinner  formed  an  acquaintance  with  Zwingle,  as  one  whose 
talents,  learning  and  eloquence  qualified  him  to  exert  a  power- 

*  Called  also  bishop  of  Vallais,  or  Wallis,  and  bishop  of  Sitten. 


60  HISTORY   OF   THE 

ful  influence  upon  the  people  of  Crlanis ;  and  it  was,  doubt- 
less, through  his  recommendation  that  the  pope  granted  to 
Zwingle  a  pension  of  fifty  guilders,  the  same  which  he  gave  to 
many  other  distinguished  and  influential  men.  The  reformer 
acknowledges  the  fact  in  his  writings,  and  in  a  manner  which, 
at  the  same  time,  is  a  proof  of  the  uprightness  of  his  character : 
"  I  confess  my  sin,"  said  he,  "  before  God  and  all  men.  Before 
the  year  1516,  I  still  held  fast  to  the  pope's  supremacy,  and 
thought  it  right  to  take  money  from  him ;  though  I  always 
told  the  Roman  agents,  in  plain  terms,  when  they  exhorted 
me  to  preach  nothing  that  would  militate  against  the  pope, 
that  they  must  not  entertain  the  slightest  hope  that  I  would 
abate  even  a  word  of  the  truth  for  the  sake  of  their  money ; 
and  they  might,  therefore,  take  it  again,  if  it  were  their  plea- 
sure. I  speak  before  God,  the  judge  of  all  men,  when  I  say 
that  I  received  no  other  pension  or  reward  from  any  prince  or 
lord  whatsoever,  and  never  was,  in  any  way,  a  hireling."* 
The  pension  was,  nevertheless,  continued.  Zwingle's  ofi'er  to 
resign  it,  in  1517,  was  not  accepted ;  but,  in  1520,  he  refused 
absolutely  to  receive  it  any  longer.  The  cardinal  continued 
still  to  treat  him  with  great  kindness  and  respect,  and,  to  the 
end  of  his  life,  remained  his  sincere  and  ardent  friend. 

In  1511,  the  war  broke  out  in  all  its  fury  between  France 
and  the  pope,  who  was  supported  by  Venice  and  Spain  ;  and, 
in  April,  1512,  the  papal  army  was  routed  at  Ravenna,  with 
terrible  slaughter,  by  the  French,  under  Gaston  de  Foix. 
Lewis  XII.  had,  previous  to  the  battle,  negociated  with  the 
confederates  for  an  auxiliary  force  of  several  thousand  men, 
and  these  had  demanded  prodigious  sums  for  their  services ; 
but  after  this  signal  victory,  his  ambassadors  turned  away 
contemptuously,  and  broke  off  the  negotiation.  Enraged  by 
this  affront,  the  Swiss  repaired  in  crowds  to  the  papal  banners ; 
and  the  holy  father,  to  inflame  the  enthusiasm  of  the  faithful, 
proclaimed  a  grand  indulgence  in  Zurich  for  sinners  of  all 
sorts.     Every  sin  was  expiated  with  money,  and  the  sums 


*  Schuler,  &c.,  p.  79;  Zwingli's  Ausleg.  der  Sclilussreden,  art.  37. 


GERMAN   REFORMED   CHURCH.  61 

which  ■were  thus  I'aised  were  applied  to  the  hire  of  mercenaries 
for  the  effusion  of  blood. 

After  the  dreadful  disaster  at  Ravenna,  which  overspread 
all  Italy  with  consternation  and  terror,  cardinal  Shinner  was 
despatched  into  Switzerland,  to  represent  to  the  confederates 
the  necessity  of  immediate  succors  to  the  suffering  church, 
and  to  urge  upon  them  the  performance  of  their  engagements 
by  the  treaty  of  alliance.  Moved  by  his  eloquence,  fired  by 
fanatical  zeal  for  the  see  of  St.  Peter  and  the  safety  of  the 
afflicted  church,  and  filled  with  revenge  against  France,  not 
less  than  twenty  thousand  men,  of  the  choicest  infantry,  were 
under  arms  and  prepared  to  march  in  the  space  of  six  days. 
At  Verona,  in  Italy,  cardinal  Shinner  received  them  with 
great  pomp,  and  with  much  solemnity  presented  the  presents 
of  the  holy  father.  These  were  a  consecrated  ducal  hat,  with 
an  image  of  the  Holy  Ghost  in  the  form  of  a  dove,  made  of 
gold,  and  ornamented  with  pearls  upon  its  crown,  and  a  con- 
secrated golden  sword  adorned  with  precious  stones.  These 
costly  gifts  from  the  father  of  the  faithful,  presented  with 
imposing  ceremonies,  and  joined  with  every  hallowed  recollec- 
tion, kindled  the  enthusiasm  of  the  Swiss  warriors  into  a 
higher  flame,  and  urged  them  to  deeds  of  greater  daring  than 
their  native  valor  would  have  inspired.  Feeling  themselves 
invincible,  they  sought  the  enemy,  and  pressed  onward  with 
an  ardor  and  an  impetuosity  which  nothing  could  resist :  the 
French  were  everywhere  beaten  and  compelled  to  abandon 
their  conquests,  and  the  victors  returned  in  triumph,  covered 
\vith  renown,  and  laden  with  rewards  and  the  spoils  of  war. 
The  pope  was  delivered,  and,  in  grateful  acknowledgment  of 
his  indebtedness,  he  honored  the  confederates  with  the  title 
oi  Protectors  of  tJie  Liberty  of  the  Church.'^ 

Two  other  expeditions  were  undertaken,  in  1513  and  1515. 
In  the  former,  they  achieved  the  splendid  victory  of  Novarra 
over  a  greatly  superior  French  army ;  but,  defrauded  by  their 


*  The  canton  of  Bern  continued  in  tlie  interest  of  France,  and  took  no 
part  in  tliis  expedition. 
F 


62  HISTORY   OF  THE 

leaders  of  their  portion  of  the  spoils,  a  mutiny  arose,  all 
discipline  ceased,  and  the  troops,  dispersing  themselves  over 
the  country,  exacted  a  forced  compensation  for  their  services 
by  levying  contributions  upon  the  people  whom  they  had  saved 
by  their  valor.  The  victory  of  Novarra  was  dearly  bought, 
and  its  tarnished  glory  was  no  equivalent  for  the  blood  which 
it  had  cost.  A  general  excitement  now  arose,  throughout  the 
greater  part  of  Switzerland,  against  the  corruption  which  pre- 
vailed in  high  places,  the  treachery  of  military  chiefs,  and  the 
traffic  in  the  blood  of  the  citizens,  by  rulers  who  were  bought 
with  gold  to  the  interests  of  foreign  powers,  and  were  callous 
to  the  miseries  of  their  own  people.  The  storm  raged  with  a 
violence  that  threatened  to  overwhelm  the  guilty  with  merited 
ruin ;  but  the  wily  traitors  bent  before  it,  soothed  the  enraged 
citizens  with  promises,  and — betrayed  them  again.* 

Pope  Leo  X.,  the  successor  of  Julius,  sought  to  gain  the 
cantons  by  flattering  missives.  He  lamented  with  parental 
tenderness  over  the  slaughter  of  the  recent  battle,  assured 
the  people  of  his  paternal  love,  showed,  in  the  discomfiture  of 
the  French,  how  ill  they  must  fare  who  do  not  fight  on  the 
side  of  the  church,  and  exhorted  them  to  be  faithful  in  the 
observance  of  the  subsisting  treaty  of  alliance.  The  brief 
addressed  to  the  canton  of  Grlarus,  was  sent  to  Zwingle  by 
the  pope's  legate,  Ennius  Philonardius,  bishop  of  Veroli,  to 
be  by  him  presented  to  the  council,  with  the  expectation  that 
such  attention  to  him  would  move  him  to  use  his  personal 
influence  to  procure  for  it  a  favorable  reception.  In  the  mean 
time,  French  emissaries,  and  pensioners  of  France,  did  not 
omit  to  further,  in  every  practicable  way,  the  interests  of 
their  master.  Glarics,  also,  had  its  crown-eaters,  as  those 
were  called  who  were  in  French  pay  and  received  their 
bribes  from  the  crown  of  France. 

In  1515,  Francis  I.,  the  successor  of  Louis  XII.,  entered 
Itali/,  for  the  conquest  of  Milan,  with  an  army  more  formidable 
than  any  that  had  preceded  it.     At  the  base  of  the  mountains 

*  Schuler,  &c.,  p.  79-93. 


GERMAN   REFORMED   CHURCH.  63 

that  separate  Trance  and  Piedmont^  a  Swiss  army,  from  all 
the  cantons,  awaited  his  coming ;  but  they  were  without  union 
or  concert,  and  commanded,  in  part,  by  treacherous  leaders. 
The  king,  discovering  these  facts,  fanned  the  flame  of  discord 
by  his  emissaries,  and  bought  over  the  faithless  chiefs  with 
gold  and  alluring  promises.  The  Swiss  army  was  broken  into 
fragments ;  the  troops  of  most  of  the  cantons  concluded  a 
separate  peace  at  G-alera,  and  withdrew,  regardless  of  their 
brethren ;  the  rest  resolved  to  maintain  their  fidelity  to  the 
duke,  for  whose  protection  they  were  solemnly  pledged.  Only 
those  of  Uri,  Sclnveitz,  Glanis,  and  Unterivalden  remained ; 
and  these,  enraged  at  the  perfidy  of  the  chiefs  who  had 
brought  dishonor  upon  the  national  character  by  their  base 
desertion,  and  urged  by  cardinal  Shinner  to  redeem  their 
ancient  glory,  determined,  notwithstanding  the  fearful  odds, 
to  give  battle  to  the  crafty  foe.  They  bore  down  upon  the 
enemy,  in  the  plain  of  3Iarignano,  with  daring  impetuosity, 
and  were  met  with  dreadful  effect  by  the  superior  force  of  the 
French,  in  a  conflict  of  two  days'  continuance.  When  the 
troops  of  Zurich,  led  by  the  burgomaster,  Marcus  Roust, 
learned,  contrary  to  their  expectation,  that  their  countrymen 
were  engaged,  they  returned  and  joined  in  the  sanguinary 
battle.  But,  though,  on  the  first  day,  the  confederates  re- 
tained possession  of  the  field,  the  enemy,  being  reinforced,  on 
the  next  day  attacked  in  their  turn,  and  routed  them  with 
terrible  slaughter.  Above  five  thousand  Swiss  warriors  were 
left  in  their  blood  upon  the  field,  and,  among  these,  the  noblest 
and  bravest  in  the  land.* 

The  tidings  of  this  bloody  overthrow,  and  of  the  perfidy 
and  treason  of  a  part  of  the  army,  soon  spread  through  all  the 
cantons,  and  created  in  all  a  loud  and  deep  lamentation  for 
the  slain,  and  an  indignation  as  loud  and  as  deep  against  the 
betrayers  of  their  country's  honor.  The  governments  of  Zu- 
rich and  of  other  cantons  were  threatened  with  vengeance  by 


*  Schuler,  &c.,  p.  154.     Other  accounts  say  10,000.     See  Encyc.  Ameri 
cana,  art.  Francis  I.,  and  Edinburgh  Encyc,  art.  France. 


64  HISTORY   OF   THE 

the  people,  and  some  of  the  offenders  fell  as  victims  to  their 
just  indignation;  though,  as  Schuler  says,  not  exactly  the 
most  guilty,  inasmuch  as  these  happened  to  be  the  most 
powerful.  The  heaviest  odium  fell  upon  the  abbot  of  St. 
Gall,  who  not  only  sold  his  vassals  to  fight  the  battles  of  a 
foreign  prince  and  received  the  price  of  their  blood,  but,  when 
they  were  fallen  in  battle,  entered  upon  their  fiefs,  and  exacted 
from  the  afflicted  widows  and  orphans  the  reliefs  which  were 
customary  upon  the  death  of  the  head  of  the  family,  by  taking 
away  the  best  articles  of  their  property.  But,  as  a  spiritual 
lord,  he  was  above  the  reach  of  popular  vengeance  ;  for  no  one 
would  dare  to  incur  the  papal  ban,  by  doing  violence  to  the 
sacred  person  of  a  prelate  of  the  church. 

The  practice  of  enlisting  in  foreign  military  service,  never- 
theless continued ;  and  while,  from  some  of  the  cantons,  they 
repaired  to  the  standard  of  France,  from  others  they  went  to 
join  themselves  to  that  of  the  emperor.  At  Freyhurg,  in  the 
canton  of  the  same  name,  the  French  ambassador  threw  hand- 
fuls  of  crowns  among  the  people,  as  a  lure  to  enlistment,  say- 
ing, "  Does  not  this  silver  sound  better  than  the  sweet  words 
of  the  emperor  ?"  That  such  things  were  permitted  by  the 
goverment  of  a  free  state,  is  a  proof  of  the  deplorable  state 
of  morals  in  the  community,  and  the  base  venality  of  its 
rulers. 

According  to  the  ancient  custom  of  the  cantons,  the  pastor 
of  the  principal  church  was  chaplain  to  the  army  when  it  took 
the  field.  Zwingle  was  therefore  obliged  by  his  office,  as  chief 
pastor  in  the  canton,  to  accompany  the  troops  of  Glarus  in 
their  expeditions  into  Italy,  when  they  marched  under  the 
orders  of  their  own  rulers.  S.  Voegelin  and  others,  after 
Bullinger,  represent  him  as  being  with  the  troops  in  all  the 
three  expeditions  which  took  place  during  his  ministry  in 
G-larus ;  according  to  Schuler  and  others,  he  was  with  them 
only  in  the  first  and  third.*     His  second  expedition  is  pre- 


»  S.  Voegelin's  Jahrtafel  zur  Lebensgeschichte  Zwingli's,  anno  1513-1515. 
Schuler's  Huldi-eich  Zwingli,  p.  80,  95,  and  note  82. 


GERMAN    REFORMED    CHURCH.  65 

sumed,  because  the  established  custom  required  it ;  the  first 
and  third  are  attested  by  direct  evidence.  He  composed  a 
narrative  in  Latin  of  the  events  of  his  first  campaign  in  1512 
addressed  to  his  friend  Vadianus,  of  St.  Gall,  under  the  title, 
De  gestis  inter  Gf-allos  et  Helvetios  ad  Ravennam,  Paviam, 
aliisque  locis,  relatio  H.  Zivinglii ;  from  which,  as  we  observed 
before,  he  still  appears  warmly  attached  to  the  pope  and  the 
church  of  Rome.  In  his  last  campaign,  in  1515,  observing 
the  dissensions  and  venality  of  the  chiefs,  and  the  licentious- 
ness of  the  soldiers,  he  exerted  all  the  power  of  his  reason 
and  eloquence  to  impress  upon  them  the  necessity  of  union, 
and  the  duty  of  preserving  unsullied  both  their  own  reputa- 
tion and  the  honor  of  their  country  ;  and  when  he  failed  of 
success  in  these  efibrts,  and  saw  the  danger  to  which  the  rem- 
nant of  the  army  was  exposed,  he  endeavored,  in  all  the  zeal 
of  an  ardent  patriotism,  to  restrain  the  troops  from  the  rash- 
ness to  which  a  reckless  valor,  inflamed  by  excited  passions, 
impelled  them.  But  all  was  in  vain:  their  destiny  was  fixed; 
and  he  was  doomed  to  witness  the  heart-rending  scene  of  the 
slaughter  of  his  countrymen  in  the  murderous  battle  which 
ensued.* 

It  was  during  these  campaigns  that  Zwingle  learned  to  know 
the  perfidious  arts  of  princes,  and  of  the  pope  himself,  the  vices 
with  which  the  Swiss  soldier  became  infected  in  Italy,  the 
venality  of  his  countrymen,  the  villany  of  party-leaders,  the 
dissensions  of  the  cantons,  and  the  universal  depravation  of 
morals  among  all  classes  in  the  community :  it  was  in  these 
campaigns  that  he  witnessed  the  corrupting  effect  of  a  military 
life,  and  saw  the  horrors  of  war  in  its  savage  ferocity  :  and  it 
was  here  that  he  learned  to  see  most  clearly  the  necessity  of 
a  reformation,  and  that  he  could  not  but  feel  himself  called 
to  devote  his  own  strength  to  that  salutary  end.  On  his 
return  to  his  parish,  he  therefore  raised  his  voice  still  more  in 
impassioned  warnings  against  the  corruptions  of  the  times,  and 


*  An  account  of  this  campaign  was  written  by  Werner  Steiner,  amman  of 
Zug,  who  was  an  eye-witness. 

f2  9 


66  HISTORY    OF   THE 

treated  with  particular  severity  the  nefarious  practice  of  those 
who  accepted  bribes  in  the  form  of  pensions  from  foreign 
rulers,  and  lent  their  influence  to  corrupt  the  martial  spirit  of 
the  citizens,  and  to  engage  them,  by  the  promise  of  rewards 
and  the  prospect  of  plunder,  in  wars  with  which  their  country 
had  no  concern;  in  which  they  fought  without  an  object 
worthy  of  a  noble  mind,  and  too  often  either  met  an  untimely 
death,  or  contracted  vices  that  rendered  them  worthless  and 
wretched.  He  set  forth  in  a  strong  light  the  ruinous  conse- 
quences of  this  practice,  exposed  the  wickedness  of  those  who 
pursued  or  countenanced  it,  and  showed  how  the  obligations  of 
religion,  the  love  of  country,  and  the  common  welfare  demanded 
a  reformation.  His  rebukes  were  severe,  but  united  with  dig- 
nity and  tenderness ;  and  they  produced  an  impression  which 
it  was  not  easy  either  to  avoid  or  to  resist,  where  a  spark  of 
patriotic  feeling  or  a  sense  of  virtue  remained  that  could  be 
kindled  into  a  flame.  His  acknowledged  talents,  learning  and 
patriotism,  his  good  conduct  in  his  Italian  campaigns,  and  the 
fulfilment  of  his  warning  predictions  of  the  disasters  that  must 
result  from  the  disorders  in  the  army,  procured  for  him  the 
respect  and  love  of  every  upright  citizen.  This  encouraged 
him  the  more  to  utter  salutary  truth,  and  to  press  it  home  to 
the  conscience  and  the  heart:  and  his  zeal  was  the  more  fixed, 
and  his  eloquence  glowed  the  more,  when  he  beheld  the  deep 
affliction  that  filled  so  many  dwellings,  and  heard  the  tones  of 
lamentation  and  grief  for  the  dead,  and  the  execrations  that 
mingled  with  them  against  the  authors  of  their  bereavement, 
which  arose  from  the  hearts  of  widows  and  orphans  made  deso- 
late, of  parents  mourning  over  their  children,  and  of  brethren 
weeping  in  distress  for  the  fate  of  their  brethren. 

Zwingle  had,  before  this  time,  between  the  years  1510  and 
1514,  composed  two  poetic  allegories,  the  one  entitled,  The 
LabyrintJi,  the  other.  Concerning  an  Ox  and  some  other  Ani- 
mals, in  which  he  depicted  the  abuses  and  consequent  miseries 
of  his  country,  and  pointed  out  the  means  of  her  redemption : 
but  the  evil  had  now  attained  too  great  a  magnitude  and  power 
for  this  delicate  method   of  instruction,  the  necessity  of  a 


GERMAN    REFORMED    CHURCH.  67 

speedy  reformation  was  too  urgent,  and  his  heart  was  too  full 
of  patriotic  sympathy,  to  be  confined  to  gentle  admonition ; 
and  he  therefore  now  raised  his  voice  like  a  trumpet,  to  pro- 
claim to  his  people  their  sins,  and  to  call  them  to  repentance 
and  amendment. 

No  enemies  at  first  ventured  to  contradict  and  resist  him 
publicly ;  because  this  would  have  brought  him  out  publicly  in 
his  defence,  and  would  have  turned  a  torrent  of  indignation 
upon  them,  while  the  feelings  of  the  community  were  lively 
and  strong  in  his  favor.  Enemies  there  were,  who  hated  him 
the  more  because  they  were  the  men  whose  iniquity  and  base- 
ness he  had  exposed,  and  whose  sores  he  had  pressed  with 
such  unsparing  severity.  But  they  knew  that  truth  and  jus- 
tice were  on  his  side ;  and  they  dreaded  nothing  so  much  as 
to  have  that  truth  and  justice  brought  to  bear  upon  them  per- 
sonally, by  one  who  was  so  able  to  treat  them  according  to 
their  merits,  and  were  glad  if  responsibility  for  their  guilt 
were  left  undefined  in  the  common  mass  of  sinners.  They 
did  not  venture,  therefore,  to  put  themselves  forward  as 
marks  for  his  rebuke,  by  a  public  opposition ;  but  they  chose 
the  safer  way  of  plotting  his  destruction,  by  circulating  private 
slander,  and  whispering  it  wherever  they  found  listening  ears 
and  congenial  hearts,  until  they  had  formed  a  party  strong 
enough  to  give  them  courage  and  boldness  for  a  public  de- 
nunciation. They  found  willing  listeners  in  sufficient  num- 
bers ;  men  who  loved  corruption  because  they  were  corrupt. 
These  were  the  dissolute,  the  idlers,  discharged  mercenaries, 
who  had  returned  from  their  warfare,  laden  with  plunder  and 
A^ces,  and  delighting  in  licentiousness ;  pensioners,  whose  bu- 
siness was  to  serve  their  masters,  men  who  were  paid  to  fur- 
nish recruits  for  alien  armies ;  traitors,  who  were  ever  ready 
to  sell  their  country  for  gold  ;  political  partisans,  whose  ruling 
passion  was  covetousness,  who  sought  their  own  aggrandize- 
ment, the  possession  of  power  and  influence,  and  the  acquisi- 
tion of  wealth,  reckless  of  truth  and  of  right,  of  religion  and 
of  God ;  depraved  citizens,  who  loved  the  dissoluteness  of  a 
camp-life,  and  hoped  to  enrich  themselves  by  licensed  plunder. 


68  HISTOKT   OF  THE 

or  took  pleasure  in  deeds  of  daring  and  the  shedding  of 
blood :  in  a  word,  all  -whose  works  were  evil,  and  who,  there- 
fore, loved  darkness  rather  than  light.  Such  were  a  large 
portion  of  the  countrymen  of  Zwingle  in  those  wretched  times, 
when  the  name  Confederate  was  beginning  to  be  a  reproach 
and  a  by-word  in  the  mouths  of  virtuous  strangers,  and 
Switzerland  began  to  be  looked  upon  as  a  nursery  of  avarice 
and  ferociousness,  where  every  thing  was  bought  and  sold, 
and  instruments  could  always  be  obtained  for  every  kind  of 
war,  and  every  kind  of  desolation.  When  these  conspirators 
understood  one  another,  and  were  united  in  a  common  plot 
to  destroy  a  p:reat  and  good  man  by  sapping  the  foundation 
of  his  greatness,  there  was  no  shaft  which  they  could  not  aim 
at  him  in  secret,  no  slander  to  which  they  could  not  give  cir- 
culation, and  no  art  which  they  could  not  employ  to  give  an 
appearance  of  truth  and  of  patriotic  intention  to  their  accusa- 
tions. They  avowed  themselves  the  friends  of  the  people, 
the  advocates  of  their  liberty,  and  the  guardians  of  their  in- 
terests. The  people,  said  they,  have  a  right  to  choose  for 
themselves,  to  enjoy  their  pleasure,  to  engage  in  military 
enterprises  when  and  where  they  please ;  to  restrict  them, 
was  an  invasion  of  their  liberty  and  of  their  martial  spirit 
which  was  not  to  be  borne.  They  lauded  the  valor  of  the 
Swiss  soldier  and  the  glory  of  his  achievements,  spoke  of 
their  ancient  triumphs  and  their  recent  victories,  and  dwelt 
upon  the  honors  and  the  spoils  that  still  invited  them.  They 
aflFected  a  concern  for  religion,  and  insinuated  suspicions  of 
Zwingle's  orthodoxy.  He  read  the  books  of  heretics ;  he  did 
not  praise  the  holy  relics,  nor  the  miracles  of  the  saints,  nor 
pilgrimages  to  holy  places,  and  things  of  that  sort.  There  is 
some  heresy,  they  averred,  where  these  signs  appear ;  and 
Zwingle  is,  therefore,  a  dangerous  guide  in  religion,  as  well 
as  hostile  to  the  interest  and  the  fame  of  the  people  in  tem- 
poral things.  By  such  arts  these  selfish  demagogues  unsettled 
the  confidence  of  the  people  in  their  purest  patriot,  circum- 
scribed his  influence,  frustrated  his  benevolent  designs,  and 
too  often  filled  his  cup  with  bitterness. 


GERMAN   REFORMED    CHURCH.  69 

But  it  was  chiefly  bj  a  foreign  influence  that  this  noble- 
minded  patriot's  benevolent  exertions  in  Crlarus  were  defeated. 
No  foreign  prince  was  more  desirous  of  gaining  over  the  Swiss 
cantons  to  his  interests,  or  made  greater  exertions  for  that 
object,  than  the  French  king,  Francis  I.  He  spared  neither 
flatteries  nor  money  to  secure  his  influence  among  the  people, 
and  to  attach  them  to  his  person ;  and  there  was,  consequently, 
not  only  a  French  party  in  all  the  cantons,  but,  in  most  of 
them,  a  growing  party,  which,  increasing  daily  in  numbers 
and  in  boldness,  soon  governed  their  counsels  and  their  policy. 
This  party  was,  of  course,  opposed  to  the  reforms  which 
Zwingle  was  endeavoring  to  introduce ;  and,  as  he  remained 
firm,  and  remitted  nothing  of  his  zeal,  or  his  testimony,  he 
was  himself  subjected  to  their  hatred  and  persecution.  The 
virtuous  and  patriotic  part  of  the  citizens  continued  to  sustain 
him  ;  but  his  adversaries  Avere  able  to  carry  every  measure 
by  a  majority  of  votes  in  the  landrath,  or  council. 
'  Scarcely  had  the  lamentation  over  the  disaster  of  3Iarig- 
nano  ceased  to  fall  upon  the  ear,  when  the  king  of  France 
began  to  negotiate  for  a  body  of  auxiliaries,  on  the  basis  of 
the  treaty  of  Gralera,  the  same  by  which  he  had  engaged  the 
greater  part  of  the  cantons,  previous  to  that  fatal  battle,  to 
abandon  the  duke  of  3Iilan.  The  same  cantons  were  easily 
gained,  and,  doubtless,  by  the  same  potent  spell,  the  charm 
of  gold.  In  several  others,  of  which  Crlarus  was  one,  opposing 
parties  contended  some  time,  but  finally  yielded  their  consent. 
The  five  cantons  of  Zurich,  Scliaffhausen,  Basel,  Uri,  and 
Schweitz,  preserved  their  fidelity  and  their  honor.  The  am- 
bassadors of  the  emperor  Maximilian  expostulated  with  the 
confederates  with  great  earnestness,  entreating  them  not  to 
stain  their  reputation  by  lending  their  aid  to  a  prince  who  had 
so  recently  brought  upon  them  the  calamity  which  had  filled 
their  country  with  mourning,  and  while  the  blood  of  their 
slaughtered  fellow-citizens  was  still  unavenged.  Their  argu- 
ments were  successful  for  the  present ;  an  army  of  ten  thou- 
sand men  marched  into  Itali/,  under  the  orders  of  the  duke, 
for   the  recovery  of  Milan,  but,   without  accomplishing  the 


70  HISTORY   OF   THE 

object  of  the  expedition,  thej  returned  in  a  destitute  and 
pitiable  condition.  On  the  other  part,  the  French  king  did 
not  slumber  :  he  employed  every  means  of  persuasion  to 
maintain  his  interests,  and  to  bring  over  the  divided  cantons : 
and  he  did  so  with  success.  In  vain  did  the  cantons  who 
remained  faithful  to  the  duke  exclaim  against  such  a  connec- 
tion :  the  soldiers  who  had  served  in  the  armies  of  France 
returned  to  their  homes  enriched  with  presents  in  arms,  cloth- 
ing, and  money,  and  ridiculed  the  poverty  and  disappointment 
of  those  of  the  adverse  party ;  and  Bern  received  a  French 
subsidy  of  two  hundred  thousand  crowns,  which  was  brought 
into  the  city  with  the  sound  of  trumpets  and  every  circum- 
stance of  pomp  and  display.  Such  arguments  weighed  more  in 
the  judgment  of  the  vulgar  and  of  their  depraved  leaders,  than 
all  the  considerations  of  virtue,  patriotism,  and  honor.  At 
length,  the  emperor  having  made  peace  with  France,  and  the 
influence  of  foreign  corruption  having  ceased  for  a  time,  the  five 
faithful  cantons  persuaded  the  rest,  in  1516,  to  unite  with  them 
in  a  simple  treaty  of  perpetual  peace  with  France,  instead  of 
the  treaty  of  Galera,  by  which  they  were  become  allies  of  that 
power ;  and  thus  the  source  of  so  many  miseries  to  the  con- 
federates was  stopped  for  the  present.* 

.  But  before  these  events,  Zwingle  had  removed  the  scene  of 
his  labors  to  Mnsiedein,  in  the  canton  of  Schweitz.  His 
situation  in  Cflarus  had  become  extremely  embarrassing  when 
the  political  state  of  that  canton  had  assumed  its  new  com- 
plexion, and  his  enemies  were  become  the  ruling  party.  If 
he  continued  to  preach  as  before,  they  might  charge  him  with 
sedition,  and  arrest  him  by  the  civil  arm.  To  recede  would 
-  have  been  a  dereliction  of  duty  against  which  his  moral  feel- 
ings revolted.  The  necessity  of  transferring  his  labor  to  some 
other  place  was  therefore  evident;  and  the  invitation  from 
Mnsiedein  being  given  in  this  conjuncture,  he  might  justly 
reo-ard  it  as  an  indication  that  he  should  remove  to  that 
situation,  agreeably  to  the  Lord's  direction  :  If  thet/  persecute 

*  Schuler,  &c.,  p.  218-22L 


GERMAN   REFORMED   CHURCH.  71 

you  in  one  city^  flee  ye  to  another.  The  peaceful  retirement 
of  this  field  of  labor,  the  liberal  sentiments  of  the  abbot  of  the 
convent,  the  leisure  it  would  afford  for  the  prosecution  of  his 
studies,  and  the  opportunities  it  would  furnish,  at  certain 
seasons,  to  address  his  instructions  to  the  multitudes  of  pil- 
grims who  resorted  thither  from  all  parts  of  Sivitzerland  and 
the  neighboring  countries ;  these  were  considerations  which, 
added  to  the  state  of  things  in  Crkirus,  could  make  the  change 
as  desirable  as  it  was  expedient.* 

During  these  times,  and  especially  in  his  Italian  campaigns, 
Zwingle  had  opportunities  to  learn  the  state  of  the  church  by 
actual  observation,  not  only  at  home,  but  abroad,  and  near  its 
fountain-head ;  and  to  contrast  it  with  what  he  read  in  his 
New  Testament,  and  with  what  he  had  learned  from  the 
sacred  volume,  and  from  the  writings  of  the  fathers  of  the 
primitive  church.  It  was  in  Rome,  at  the  seat  of  the  holy 
father,  that  Luther  expected  to  see  religion  in  all  its  vigor, 
and  in  all  its  loveliness  ;  and  it  was  in  Home  that  his  religious 
feelings  received  their  most  violent  shock,  Avhen  he  saw  what 
religion  was  there  ;  what  it  was  both  in  the  people  and  in  the 
priesthood,  from  the  highest  dignitaries  of  the  church  down 
to  the  lowest  ecclesiastic  ;  when  he  saw  with  what  levity  the 
holiest  parts  of  divine  worship  were  performed,  and  what 
ignorance,  and  profaneness,  and  beastly  vice  disgraced  the 
sacred  order;  and  when  he  heard  himself  ridiculed  for  his 
devoutness  in  the  office  of  the  mass  and  in  prayer. 

If  Luther,  in  his  short  visit  to  Italy,  in  1510,  saw  enough 
to  afflict  him  with  the  deepest  mortification  and  pain  for  the 
corruption  of  the  church,  how  must  the  mind  of  Zwingle  have 
been  affected,  who  witnessed  the  same  things  at  a  riper  age, 
and  in  his  long  and  repeated  abode  in  those  dissolute  coun- 
tries ?  "Without  doubt,"  says  Schuler,  "his  cultivated  mind, 
his  truly  pious  disposition  was  more  and  more  vexed  and 
fretted  by  the  prevalent  disorder.  For  it  showed  itself  every 
where ;  in  the  general  ignorance  of  the  priests,  who    could 

*  Schuler,  &c.,  p.  221,  &c. 


72  HISTORY    OF    THE 

scarcely  read,  and  to  whom  the  Bible  was  an  unknown  book ; 
in  the  absurdity  and  ridiculousness  of  the  established  doctrines 
and  usages  ;  in  the  sermons,  that  were  filled  with  insane  legen- 
dary fables  and  scholastic  whims ;  in  the  utter  listlessness  of 
the  people  during  their  holiest  exercises ;  in  the  voluptuous- 
ness of  the  rich  monks,  and  the  impudence  of  the  mendicants, 
&c.  What  Italy  itself  exhibited  of  the  state  of  religion  and 
of  the  church,  is  told  by  two  unsuspicious  witnesses.  Bcllar- 
mine,  the  zealous  defender  of  the  papacy,  says,  '  Several 
years  before  the  rise  of  the  Lutheran  and  Calvinistic  heresies, 
according  to  the  testimony  of  cotemporary  authors,  there 
remained  almost  no  concern  about  ecclesiastical  order,  and 
moral  discipline  had  well-nigh  disappeared ;  there  was  no 
theological  learning,  no  reverence  for  divine  things,  yea, 
almost  no  religion.'  In  accordance  with  this  is  the  description 
of  the  state  of  the  church  by  the  honest  historian  Mezerai : 
'The  heads  of  the. church,'  says  he,  ' no  longer  gave  them- 
selves any  concern  about  church-discipline ;  the  vices  and 
excesses  of  the  clergy  reached  the  highest  pinnacle ;  they 
"were  become  so  visible  and  notorious  that  they  stirred  up  the 
hatred  and  contempt  of  all  nations.  We  blush  to  make  men- 
tion of  the  usury  and  extortion,  the  debauchery,  and  the 
universal  immorality  of  the  priests  of  these  times ;  the  licen- 
tiousness and  profligacy  of  the  monks,  the  pride  and  pomp  of 
the  prelates,  and  their  scandalous  indolence,  ignorance,  and 
superstition.  I  confess,  this  scandal  w^as  not  new.  The  bar- 
barism and  stupidity  of  the  earlier  centuries  had,  in  some 
measure,  veiled  their  vices ;  but  now,  in  the  dawn  of  science 
and  learning,  these  stains  appeared  the  more  strikingly :  and 
as  uneducated  sinners  could  not  endure  the  dazzling  light,  the 
learned  treated  them  with  no  forbearance,  made  them  ridicu- 
lous, and  exposed  their  nakedness  and  shame  to  all  the  world. 

"  Beside  the  brutish  stupidity  of  the  inferior  priests,  and 
of  the  people,  Zwingle  saw,  indeed,  in  the  great,  especially  in 
the  higher  clergy,  and  at  the  papal  court,  examples  of  a  love 
of  science  and  of  the  fine  arts,  a  species  of  illumination  before 
wluch  blind  superstition  disappeared ;  it  gave  light  to  the  eye 


GERMAN   REFORMED    CHURCH.  73 

for  the  perception  of  sensual  beauty,  and  allured  to  a  more 
refined  voluptuousness  :  but  it  shed  no  light  upon  the  mind  to 
discern  what  is  eternal  and  holy.  With  a  specious  culture 
was  joined  a  cheerless  infidelity,  a  flagitious  mockery  of  every 
thing  holy  and  divine,  a  self-destruction  in  unbelief  and  vice. 
It  was  a  love  of  the  fine  arts  and  of  science,  a  patronizing  of 
erudition,  that  instantly  turned  into  mortal  hatred  and  furious 
persecution,  as  soon  as  an  attempt  was  made  to  apply  them 
to  the  reformation  of  faith  and  life,  to  the  illumination  and 
culture  of  the  people,  and  thus  to  tread  too  near  the  hierarchy 
and  its  abuses."* 

When  Zwingle  compared  this  state  of  things  in  the  church 
with  the  doctrine  of  Christ  which  he  read  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment, he  saw  that  the  church  as  well  as  the  state  needed  a 
thorough  reformation ;  he  saw  that  the  religion  of  the  Bible 
and  the  religion  of  the  chu^h  were  wholly  different  things ; 
that  a  prodigious  mass  of  human  fictions  had  been  accumu- 
lated <upon  the  simplicity  of  the  gospel ;  that  neither  the  doc- 
trines which  the  people  were  commanded  to  believe  on  the 
authority  of  the  priesthood,  nor  the  multitudinous  ceremonies 
which  they  were  taught  to  regard  with  such  devout  reverence, 
nor  the  works  they  were  required  to  do  for  the  benefit  of 
their  souls,  had  any  support  in  the  word  of  God,  and  served 
only  to  deceive  the  multitude,  and  to  afford  to  a  proud  and 
worthless  hierarchy  the  means  of  self-indulgence  :  he  saw 
that  from  such  a  religion  the  fruits  of  holiness  were  not  to  be 
expected,  and  that  before  the  fruit  could  be  good,  the  tree 
itself  must  be  made  good.  He  therefore  felt  the  necessity  of 
a  reformation  of  the  church  in  her  doctrine  and  worship,  as 
well  as  in  the  life  of  her  members  :  and  considering  the  church 
and  the  state  as  one,  he  conceived  the  design  of  a  radical  k. 
reform  that  would  embrace  both. 

This  reformation,  he  perceived,  must  be  effected  by  means 
of  the  gospel,  as  the  principle  that  must  give  it  life  and  deter- 
mine its  shape  and  character.      It  was  clear  to  him   that 


*  Schuler,  &c.,  p.  127-134,  and  note  95. 
10 


74  HISTORY   OF   THE 

neither  the  popes,  nor  the  church,  nor  general  councils  were 
infallible,  inasmuch  as  their  history  abounded  with  but  too 
evident  proofs  of  their  fallibility.  It  was  clear  also  that  the 
Bible  did  not  derive  its  authority  from  the  church,  but,  on  the 
contrary,  the  church  herself  must  be  tried  by  the  Bible.  It 
was  equally  clear  that  the  church  had  not  an  exclusive  right 
to  interpret  the  Holy  Scriptures  for  all  her  members.  There 
was  no  need  of  any  other  inspiration  than  is  given  to  every 
sincere  inquirer  after  God  for  the  right  understanding  of  its 
instructions;  and  if  there  were,  the  church  gave  no  proof, 
beside  her  own  assertion,  that  she  possessed  it.  The  so-called 
interpretation  of  the  church,  moreover,  is  but  another  name 
for  the  private  interpretations  of  her  several  ministers,  each 
of  whom  has  succeeded  more  or  less,  or  has  failed  altogether, 
in  his  attempts  to  give  the  sense  of  the  Scripture,  according 
to  his  own  ability,  the  state  of  Jiis  mind,  and  the  helps  that 
have  been  at  his  command.  As  to  the  traditionary  accounts 
of  the  unwritten  teaching  of  Christ  and  his  apostles,  which 
the  church  of  Home  pretends  to  have  preserved,  there  is  no 
rule  by  which  their  truth  can  be  tested  except  the  written 
word.  If  they  do  not  agree  with  this  rule,  they  are  false,  and 
must  be  rejected.  We  can  prove  historically  that  the  written 
word  has  not  been  materially  corrupted  in  its  descent  from 
the  apostolic  age  to  our  own ;  but  it  cannot  be  proved  that 
unwritten  traditions  have  not  been  materially  corrupted :  no- 
body can  tell  what  a  certain  tradition  of  this  sort  was  a  thou- 
sand years  ago  :  nobody  can  prove  that  it  then  had  even  an 
existence.  We  cannot  receive  it  on  the  authority  of  the 
Romish  clergy,  who  assert  it,  and  profess  that  they  are  pre- 
served from  error  in  so  doing  by  the  guidance  of  the  Holy 
Ghost.  Let  them  show  the  proof  that  they  are  so  guided. 
That  Spirit,  we  know,  led  the  authors  of  the  New  Testament ; 
and  if  the  same  spirit  led  also  the  clergy  of  the  church  of 
Rome,  why  have  they  not  spoken  in  harmony  with  the  sacred 
writers  ?  And  if  he  guided  them  always  infallibly  in  the 
knowledge  of  the  truth,  so  that  they  have  preserved  in  its 
purity  the  unwritten  teaching  of  Christ  and  his  apostles,  why 


GERMAN   REFORMED   CHURCH.  75 

has  he  not  guided  them  as  infallibly  in  the  practice  of  the 
truth,  and  made  them  as  holy  and  exemplary  in  their  lives,  as 
we  know,  from  the  written  word,  that  Christ  and  his  apostles 
were  ?  Or  is  the  Holy  Spirit  so  careful  to  preserve  the  know- 
ledge of  what  the  apostles  did  not  deem  it  expedient  to  record, 
and  yet  so  indijQferent  about  Christian  virtue  and  holiness,  on 
which  they  so  much  insisted,  as  to  let  them  wander  so  egre- 
giously  into  every  kind  of  excess  ?  Zwingle's  clear  and  pene- 
trating mind,  therefore,  discerned  that  the  Bible  alone  could 
be  the  standard  of  Christian  truth ;  and  that  it  is  the  right 
of  every  one,  who  desires  to  know  the  will  of  God,  to  read, 
and  to  interpret  it  for  his  own  instruction  and  edification, 
without  waiting  for  the  priest,  or  any  other  interpreter,  where 
its  meaning  is  plain  to  every  one's  understanding.  He  stood 
forth,  with  the  book  of  life  in  his  hands,  and  said,  "From  this 
alone  does  reformation  proceed  ;  in  it  alone  is  contained  the 
remedy  for  the  human  race  ;  it  is  exalted  above  all  church- 
fathers,  and  popes,  and  councils  ;  God  speaks  in  it  to  every 
man,  and  human  ordinances  must  be  silent  before  it.  Where 
God  speaks  to  the  heart  of  man,  no  one  must  force  his  opinion 
upon  another ;  the  truth  carries  its  own  evidence  in  itself, 
and  with  itself."* 

Fully  convinced  that  a  radical  renovation  of  both  the  church 
and  the  state  was  indispensable,  and  could  not  be  longer  delayed, 
believing  that  the  preaching  of  the  pure  gospel  was  the  true 
remedy  for  the  evil,  and  full  of  trust  in  God,  he  rose  in  his 
congregation  in  Grlarus,  about  the  commencement  of  the  year 
1516,  after  his  return  from  his  last  campaign,  as  a  preacher 
of  the  word  of  God,  and  resolved  to  contribute  his  part  toward 
a  reformation,  without  asking  or  caring  whether  any  other 
beside  himself  had  yet  arisen.  It  was  not  a  single  exciting 
occurrence  that  moved  him  to  this  determination ;  but  the 
aspect  of  the  church  and  the  commonwealth  had  gradually 
matured  the  purpose  in  his  mind,  and  now  constrained  him  to 
attempt  the  execution.     There  was,  therefore,  nothing  of  haste 

*  Schuler,  &c.,  p.  143. 


76  HISTORY   OF   THE 

and  rashness  in  his  manner  of  proceeding.  He  acted  with 
wise  deliberation  and  forbearance,  as  the  nature  of  the  times 
required.  He  did  not  begin  with  controverting  doctrines  that 
were  contrary  to  his  own  convictions,  and  denouncing  false 
and  superstitious  forms  of  worship  ;  but  with  luminous  exhi- 
bitions of  evangelical  truth,  drawn  from  the  Scriptures,  and 
presented  to  his  hearers  with  clearness  and  force  of  evidence, 
as  the  teaching  of  the  divine  word,  and  then  left  to  itself  to 
do  its  own  work.  He  always  took  for  the  basis  of  his  ser- 
mons the  Scripture  passage  that  was  read  in  the  canon  of  the 
mass  for  the  day ;  with  this  he  connected  other  clear  and  im- 
portant passages  of  similar  import,  and  explained  them  in  a 
simple  and  lucid  manner.  In  this  way,  he  proceeded  from  one 
evangelical  truth  to  another,  evolving  one  from  the  other, 
explaining  and  proving  it;  and  thus  prepared  his  way  for 
still  farther  advances  in  the  development  of  the  truth  of  the 
gospel.  He  confesses,  however,  in  the  explanation  of  his 
theses,  written  in  1523,  that,  when  he  began  this  mode  of 
preaching,  he  still  deferred  too  much  to  the  opinions  of  the 
fathers,  as  the  most  ancient  and  best  interpreters.*  Although 
he  made  no  direct  attacks  in  his  preaching  upon  the  errors 
of  the  church,  he  dealt  with  the  utmost  plainness,  and  with 
an  unsparing  severity,  with  the  corruptions  and  vices  in  the 
state,  and  in  common  life.  These  he  regarded  as  the  main 
obstacles  to  the  reception  of  the  doctrinal  part  of  Christianity. 
His  principal  efforts  were  therefore  directed,  in  the  outset,  to 
their  removal:  and  for  this  object  he  urged  the  morality  of 
the  gospel,  and  made  his  appeals  chiefly  to  the  heart  and  the 
moral  sensibility  of  his  hearers.  He  met,  however,  with  a 
counter-current,  too  strong  to  be  overcome,  and  was,  eventu- 
ally, necessitated  to  retire  from  this  field  of  action. 

It  was  on  the  14th  of  April,  1516,  that  Zwingle  accepted 
the  call  from  Einsiedeln.  His  separation  from  his  charge  in 
Cflarus  was  in  the  spirit  of  kindness.  His  enemies  suffered 
him  to  depart  in  peace,  while  his  friends  manifested  their 

*  Schuler,  &c.,  pp.  148-151. 


GERMAN   REFORMED    CHURCH.  77 

regret  in  public  expressions  of  sorrow.  They  consented  to 
his  removal  only  on  the  condition  that,  after  some  time,  he 
would  return  to  them  again.  They  chose  no  successor  while 
they  entertained  a  hope  of  his  return,  and  continued,  during 
all  this  time,  to  pay  to  him  the  income  of  the  living.  Of  this, 
indeed,  he  had  need ;  for  his  office  in  Einsiedeln  was  only  a 
vicarate,  with  a  salary  of  twenty  guilders  and  a  free  table. 
The  abbot  had,  indeed,  given  him  the  promise  of  the  first 
vacant  prebend  in  his  gift ;  but  none  was  then  at  his  disposal. 
Zwingle  continued  to  bear  the  title  of  Pastor  of  Qlarus;  and 
when,  in  1517,  a  call  was  presented  to  him  from  Winterthur, 
he  declined  it,  on  the  ground  that  he  could  not  accept  it  with- 
out the  consent  of  the  church  in  Glarus.  It  was  not  until 
after  his  removal  to  Zurich,  that  the  Glareans  chose  a  suc- 
cessor, when  they  elected  Valentine  Tschudy,  one  of  his 
pupils.*  These  facts  serve  to  show  that  the  majority  of  the 
church  of  Cflarus  were  not  wholly  insensible  to  the  claims  of 
virtue,  nor  incapable  of  appreciating  real  worth.  Much  as 
the  enemies  of  Zwingle  hated  him  while  he  was  in  their  way, 
they  were  silent  now,  and  put  no  hinderance  in  the  way  of  any 
honors  or  favors  which  his  friends  wished  to  confer  on  him. 
Virtue  itself  is  hated  when  it  steps  into  a  bad  man's  path ; 
but  there  is  that  in  it,  and  there  is  that  in  his  own  nature, 
which  compels  him  to  respect  it :  and  when  his  passions  are 
not  aroused,  and  his  reason  is  suffered  to  rule,  he  bows  spon- 
taneously before  men  whom  he  once  hated,  or  affected  to 
despise. t 


*  About  the  time  of  liis  settlement  in  Glarus,  Zwingle  opened  an  academy 
for  the  instruction  of  youth  in  science  and  classical  literature,  and,  during 
his  continuance,  was  intrusted  with  the  education  of  many  young  men  of  the 
best  families  in  the  canton,  who  continued  ever  after  his  warm  friends. 

t  Schuler,  &c.,  p.  223. 


e2 


78  HISTORY   OF   THE 


CHAPTER  III. 

MINISTRY  OF  ZWINGLE  IN  EINSIEDELN,  INDULGENCES,   Ac. 

The  town  of  Einsiedeln^  or  Einsidlen,  is  situated  near  the 
Sill,  in  the  canton  of  Schiveitz,  in  a  valley,  between  lofty 
mountains  whose  summits  are  covered  with  perpetual  snow. 
It  arose  from  a  convent,  and  this  from  the  hut  of  a  hermit. 
Hence  is  its  name,  Einsicdeln,  that  is,  the  hermitage.  About 
the  middle  of  the  ninth  century,  Meinhard,  a  monk  of  Heich- 
enau,  and  son  of  a  German  nobleman,  took  up  his  abode  in 
what  was  then  the  solitude  of  a  gloomy  forest,  and  there 
erected  his  solitary  tent.  The  violent  death  of  the  first  her- 
mit furnished  the  occasion  for  tales  of  signs  and  wonders  that 
were  said  to  be  wrought  there,  and  which  the  easy  faith  of 
those  times  readily  believed,  and  treasured  up  among  its  holy 
things.  About  a  hundred  years  later,  Eberhard,  a  wealthy 
canon  of  Strasburg,  caused  a  church  and  a  convent  to  be 
erected  on  this  consecrated  spot,  in  honor  of  the  holy  virgin, 
for  whose  special  service  a  chapel  was  constructed  within  the 
compass  of  the  church.  The  bishop  of  Constance,  so  says  the 
legend,  to  whose  diocese  the  place  belonged,  was  called  to 
dedicate  the  new  edifice  to  the  virgin-mother.  He  performed 
the  ceremony  for  the  church ;  but  when  he  came  to  do  the 
same  for  the  chapel,  a  voice  from  the  unseen  world  called  to 
him  three  times.  Forbear  !  God  himself  has  dedicated  it !  The 
people  heard  the  miraculous  voice,  and  believed,  but  wished  to 
be  informed  how  this  holy  thing  was  done.  The  bishop  then 
revealed  to  them  the  particulars  of  the  wonderful  event.  The 
Lord  Christ,  said  he,  performed  the  holy  office,  attended  and 
assisted  by  the  angels,  apostles,  and  saints.  The  holy  virgin 
was  all  the  while  standing  upon  the  altar  in  the  brilliancy  of 
lightning.  At  midnight,  wliilst  I  and  my  brethren  were  at 
prayer  in  the  church,  we  heard  the  angels  most  sweetly  sing 


GERMAN   REFORMED   CHURCH.  79 

the  hymns  of  dedication !  A  bull  of  pope  Leo  VIII.,  pro- 
mulgated in  the  year  964,  authenticated  this  miracle  to  the 
faithful,  and  placed  it  above  all  doubt.  The  festival  of  the 
angelic  dedication,  Ungehveihe,  was  instituted  to  commemorate 
the  event,  and  the  pope  granted  plenary  indulgence  to  all  who 
would  perform  a  pilgrimage  to  the  place,  and  worship  at  the 
shrine  thus  marked  out  by  the  finger  of  God  as  a  place  of 
peculiar  favor.  Hence,  the  inscription  was  placed  above  the 
entrance,  Here  is  plenary  absolution  for  the  guilt  and 
PUNISHMENT  OF  ALL  SINS.  Princcs  and  nobles  now  made  liber- 
al donations  to  the  convent,  and  placed  there  such  members 
of  their  families  as  they  wished  to  remain  childless,  that  they 
might  be  maintained  during  life  by  these  endowments,  and  be 
rewarded  with  a  higher  place  in  heaven  for  the  loss  of  this 
world's  enjoyments.  Pope  Innocent  IV.  granted  to  the 
abbot  the  dignity  of  a  bishop,  and  the  emperor,  Rudolph 
of  Hapsburg,  conferred  on  him  the  title  and  prerogatives  of 
a  prince.  In  the  fourteenth  century,  when  the  endowments 
began  to  fail,  a  new  source  of  wealth  was  invented,  by  a  mi- 
raculous image  of'  the  virgin,  which  dispensed  innumerable 
favors  to  the  devout  pilgrims  who  honored  her  there,  and  who 
in  return  filled  the  convent  with  immeasurable  riches.  Con- 
flagrations and  extravagance  sometimes  diminished  these  co- 
pious stores  of  wealth ;  but  the  waste  was  soon  repaired  by 
the  liberality  of  innumerable  and  devout  votaries. 

It  had  become  a  rule  to  admit  only  monks  of  high  nobility 
to  the  privileges  of  this  convent.  For  some  cause,  the  number 
of  those  who  chose  to  avail  themselves  of  this  privilege  had 
greatly  decreased  within  the  last  half  century  which  preceded 
the  Reformation.  From  the  year  1481,  Conrad  von  liechberg, 
of  an  ancient  race  of  nobility,  presided  over  the  convent,  in 
the  quality  of  abbot.  As  a  bishop,  he  was  exempted  from 
the  jurisdiction  of  the  bishop  of  Constance,  and  as  a  prince,  he 
exercised  an  independent  sovereignty  over  his  little  domain. 
He  had  been  consigned  by  his  family  to  the  monastic  life, 
without  his  own  consent,  and  was,  therefore,  discontented  with 
his  situation,  notwithstanding  the  dignities  attached  to  it. 


80  HISTORY   OP   THE 

His  preference  was  for  the  cliivalrous  life  of  tlie  nobles,  while 
on  that  of  the  monks  he  looked  with  aversion.  For  these 
reasons  he  intrusted  the  administration  of  the  convent  to  his 
prior,  Theobald  von  GreroldsecJc,  and  sought  his  enjoyment 
rather  in  the  pleasures  of  the  chase  than  in  the  cares  of  his 
office.  His  character  was  severe,  and  somewhat  rude,  but  open, 
upright,  fearless,  and  just.  He  possessed  a  clear  understand- 
ing, was  friendly  to  learning,  and  superior  to  a  blind,  implicit 
faith.  When  he  was  admonished,  on  one  occasion,  that,  by 
neglecting  to  say  mass,  and  being  too  indulgent  to  such  as 
transgressed  the  rules  of  the  order,  he  subjected  himself  to  the 
suspicion  of  heresy,  he  replied  :  "  In  my  church,  I  am  master — 
not  you.  As  to  the  mass,  I  say  freely,  if  Christ  be  in  the 
bread,  I  know  not,  indeed,  how  worthy  you  esteem  yourselves, 
but  I,  poor  monk,  am  not  worthy  to  behold  the  eternal  God, 
much  less  to  offer  him.  If  Christ  be  not  therein,  wo  to  me, 
if,  instead  of  God,  I  offer  bread,  and  let  the  people  worship 
it.  Let  me  alone  ;  I  shall  govern  my  convent  as  I  am  able  to 
answer  for  it."  He  took  much  interest  in  religious  conversa- 
tion, and  was  deeply  persuaded  that  there  were  depths  in 
religion  which  no  investigation  could  reach.  He  died  without 
receiving  the  rites  of  the  church  of  Home,  and  refused  them 
when  they  were  offered.  Geroldseck,  who  was  both  the  ad- 
ministrator and  the  pastor  of  the  convent,  was  a  man  of  the 
same  liberal  way  of  thinking,  but  of  gentler  manners,  and  a 
zealous  friend  of  science  and  literature.  His  favorite  object 
was  to  make  his  convent  a  seat  of  learning ;  and,  with  this 
view,  to  draw  into  it  men  of  genius  and  eminent  attainments. 
He  had  already  obtained  several  learned  associates,  among 
whom  were  Francis  Zink  and  John  Taureolus,  whose  German 
name  was  Oechslein.  As  soon  as  he  had  learned  the  situation 
of  Zwingle  in  Glarus,  he  offered  to  him  the  vicarate  in  the 
convent,  and  had  the  satisfaction  to  secure  him,  and  to  add 
him  to  his  enlightened  friends.* 

Here,  in  the  society  of  these  men  of  congenial  minds,  Zwin- 

*  Schuler,  &c.,  p.  22.9-235 


GERMAN   REFORMED   CHURCH.  81 

glc  prosecuted  his  studies  •with  the  utmost  industry.  He  was 
especially  occupied  with  the  Greek  language,  of  the  richness 
and  beauty  of  which  he  was  an  enthusiastic  admirer,  and 
formed  so  intimate  an  acquaintance  with  it,  as  to  be  ranked 
with  the  profoundest  Greek  scholars  of  that  age.*  He  read 
the  ecclesiastical  fathers  diligently,  and  recommended  the 
study  of  them  to  his  friends,  as  preferable  to  the  scholastic 
divines ;  but,  though  his  veneration  of  them  was  still  great, 
they  sunk  gradually  in  his  esteem,  as  his  knowledge  of  them 
advanced  and  his  attention  was  drawn  to  their  inconsistencies 
and  errors.  In  recommending  the  works  of  Jerome  to  his 
superior,  Geroldseck,  as  a  help  in  the  investigation  of  the 
Scriptures,  he  remarked,  "  If  God  will,  the  time  will  soon  be 
at  hand,  when  neither  Jerome,  nor  any  other,  but  the  Scrip- 
ture only,  will  have  much  weight  with  Christians."  Above 
all,  he  read  and  studied  the  Bible,  which  was  to  him  the  book 
of  all  books.  His  eminent  abilities  and  excellent  character 
secured  to  him  a  personal  influence,  which  he  exerted  for 
noble  ends  and  with  happy  effect.  The  whole  convent,  as  well 
as  the  circle  of  his  learned  friends,  with  a  single  exception, 
were  brought  over  to  his  religious  sentiments,  and  embraced 
his  reformation.f  The  light  broke  in  upon  their  vision,  and 
shone  Avith  increasing  brightness  from  day  to  day.  Implicit 
faith  and  reverence  of  human  authority  vanished,  when  the 
Bible  was  before  them,  and  was  no  longer  a  sealed  book. 
They  were  not  turned  back  in  their  path  when  they  saw  that, 
if  the  superstitions  of  the  people  were  exploded,  and  the  wor- 


*  He  was  assisted  in  tliis  study  here  by  an  able  teacher  recommended  to 
him  by  Erasmus. 

f  This  one  exception  was  the  priest  whom  Valentine  Tschudy  appointed 
his  vicar  in  Giants,  that  he  himself  might  be  at  leisure  to  pm-sue  his  studies 
in  Paris.  This  treacherous  priest  must  have  aiFected  to  agree  with  Zwingle, 
for  he  seems  even  to  have  been  his  assistant  in  Eimicdeln.  But,  having 
secured  the  vicarate  in  Glarus,  he  threw  off  the  mask,  openly  declared  for 
the  French  party,  abused  cardinal  Shinner,  who  had  been  his  friend,  but 
was  odious  to  that  party  in  the  state,  denounced  Zwingle  and  his  reforms, 
and  strove  with  vehemence  to  destroy  the  effects  of  his  ministry  in  that 
parish.     Such  was  one  of  the  exclusive  "  friends  of  the  people." 

11 


82  HISTORY    OF   THE 

ship  of  God  were  brought  back  to  its  original  simplicity,  and 
the  doctrine  were  established  that  Christ  is  the  only  mediator, 
and  his  death  the  only  atonement  for  sin,  and  faith  in  him 
the  only  way  of  salvation,  then  the  overgrown  power  of  the 
priesthood  would  be  broken  into  fragments,  the  sources  of 
their  wealth  would  be  dried  up,  the  clergy  would  be  reduced 
to  mere  religious  teachers,  and  their  claims  to  reverence  would 
rest,  not  upon  their  office,  but  upon  their  personal  character. 
They  valued  the  triith,  which  they  now  saw,  and  the  power 
of  which  they  felt,  too  highly  to  let  it  be  weighed  against  any 
temporal  interests  of  which  its  prevalence  would  deprive  them. 
The  change  which  was  thus  wrought  within  them  soon  became 
apparent  in  their  external  acts.  Convinced  that  monastic 
vows,  and  the  rules  to  which  they  bound  their  subjects,  were 
not  in  acordance  with  the  gospel,  the  administrator  of  the 
convent  sent  Zwingle  and  Taureolus  to  the  female  convent  of 
Fahr,  to  release  the  nuns  from  their  matins,  to  recommend  to 
them  the  reading  of  the  German  Bible,  and  to  authorize  those, 
who  were  so  inclined,  to  leave  the  convent  and  to  marry.*  It 
is  said,  also,  with  much  internal  probability,  that  he  caused 
the  inscription  above  the  entrance  of  the  church.  Here  is  i^le- 
nary  absolution  from  the  guilt  and  punishment  of  all  sins,  to 
be  taken  away,  and  the  so-called  bones  of  saints,  which  had 
been  preserved  as  holy  relics,  to  be  buried.f 

From  this  time,  Zwingle  began  to  propound  his  scriptural 
sentiments  more  fully  and  boldly,  and  to  make  direct  attacks 
upon  the  superstitions  and  abuses  of  the  popular  religion. 
What  he  did  was  done  considerately,  after  carefully  counting 
the  cost.  On  the  one  hand  were  the  allurements  of  wealth 
and  preferment,  which  were  at  the  disposal  of  the  papal  see  ; 
on  the  other,  he  was  admonished,  by  former  examples,  that 
the  hierarchy  were  not  to  be  oifended  with  impunity,  and  that 
the  vengeance  which  they  were  accustomed  to  inflict  was 
terrible.     Removal  had  saved  him  fro'ji  the  distress  of  a  poli- 

*  Tlie  convent  of  Fahr  was  -aear  Zurich,  in  the  same  canton, 
t  Schuler,  &c.,  239-241. 


GERMAN?   REFORMED   CHURCH.  83 

tical  persecution ;  but  Aviicrc  should  he  find  protection  from 
the  fulminations  of  the  Vatican,  before  which  Avholc  nations 
had  hitherto  trembled,  and  kings  were  prostrated  in  the  dust  ? 
He  was  not  about  to  raise  his  voice  against  a  solitary  abuse 
of  the  church,  but  to  testify  against  a  whole  system  of  abuses, 
that  blended  with  all  her  doctrine  and  worship,  and  the  removal 
of  Avhich  could  hardly  be  hoped  for  without  a  violent  convul- 
sion of  all  her  frame.  He  was  not  about  to  engage  in  a  con- 
test with  a  single  ecclesiastic,  who  might  be  suspected  of 
abusing  the  pope's  authority ;  but  what  he  meditated  was  to 
lay  his  hands  upon  the  entire  body  of  the  hierarchy,  to  bring 
them  down  from  their  proud  elevation,  to  cut  off  theLr  right 
hands,  to  pluck  out  the  offending  eyes,  and  to  reduce  them  to 
the  humble  condition  of  ministers  of  Christ  for  the  salvation  of 
souls.  Nor  was  the  pope  himself  to  be  spared  in  this  pruning 
and  levelling  transformation ;  and  all  the  pre-eminency  that 
was  to  be  conceded  to  him  was,  that  he  should  be  the  first  and 
the  best  among  the  servants  of  his  Lord.  Such  an  enterprise 
could  not  be  attempted  without  dangers  which  it  was  not  easy 
to  despise ;  and  when  Zwingle  cast  his  eyes  upon  it,  and  sur- 
veyed it  in  its  magnitude  and  in  its  consequences,  he  might 
well  hesitate,  and  think  himself  sufficiently  warned  by  the  fate 
of  Huss  and  Jerome  of  Prague,  and  of  the  many  thousands 
whose  piousicfforts,  even  in  the  humblest  way,  had  ended  in 
tortures  and  in  death.  But  his  perception  of  scriptural  truth 
-and  of  the  corruption  of  the  church  was  now  too  clear,  his 
conviction  was  too  powerful,  and  his  sense  of  duty  to  publish 
what  he  knew  was  too  strong  to  be  overcome  by  such  con- 
siderations. They  taught  him  the  necessity  of  caution  and 
prudence ;  they  caused  him  to  distrust  himself,  and  to  wish 
that  others,  more  able  than  himself,  or  less  exposed  than  he, 
might  become  the  leaders  in  so  arduous  an  undertakinjx ;  but 
he  did  not  dare  to  remain  silent,  when  he  looked  upon  the 
perishing  multitudes,  and  to  lock  up  in  his  own  bosom  the 
truth  by  which  they  might  be  saved ;  and  he  therefore  deter- 
mined that,  whatever  the  consequence  might  be,  he  would  put 


84  HISTORY   OF   THE 

his  trust  in  God,  and  his  life  in  his  hands,  and  proclaim  to  all 
the  truth  of  the  gospel  of  Christ. 

He  continued  to  pursue  the  plan,  which  he  had  adopted  in 
G-larus,  of  making  the  Scripture  passage  which  was  read  in 
the  service  of  the  mass,  the  text  of  an  expository  and  practical 
discourse,  and  exposed,  though  still  with  great  caution,  the 
deviations  of  the  church  from  the  standard  of  truth.  He  ex- 
plained the  Scriptures  by  the  Scriptures,  bringing  parallel 
places  to  elucidate  what  was  obscure,  and  to  confirm  what 
eeemed  doubtful,  in  his  text.  He  taught  the  necessity  of  a 
new  life,  directed  the  hearers  to  Jesus  Christ  as  the  only 
Saviour,  and  rejected  the  notion  of  meriting  the  favor  of  God 
by  confessions,  by  penances,  or  by  offerings  to  the  church. 
He  called  them  away  from  trusting  in  saints,  and  especially 
in  the  Virgin  Mary,  for  an  advocacy  in  heaven,  or  protection 
on  earth,  and  taught  them  to  trust  in  the  one  advocate,  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  in  the  almighty  providence  of  the  only 
God.  He  showed  that  their  confidence  in  particular  places 
of  grace  was  illusive,  and  that  God  is  everywhere  the  hearer 
of  pious  prayer.  He  denied  the  efficacy  of  indulgences,  or  of 
absolutions  that  were  granted  for  money,  and  exploded  the 
merit  of  vows,  pilgrimages,  or  other  works  that  were  designed 
to  propitiate  the  Deity ;  and  he  enjoined  upon  all  to  look  to 
the  state  of  their  hearts,  and  to  strive  after  internal  purity,  if 
they  would  render  to  God  an  acceptable  service.* 

His  confidence  grew  as  he  advanced ;  and,  in  1518,  he 
preached  these  doctrines  even  on  the  festival  of  the  angelic 
dedication,  (Ungelweihe,)  to  the  countless  numbers  who  were 
assembled  there  from  all  parts,  near  and  remote,  to  pay  their 
devotions  to  the  holy  virgin  and  her  miraculous  image;  to 
obtain  her  powerful  intercession  in  heaven  for  deliverance 
from  their  maladies  or  their  sins,  and  for  prosperity  in  their 
earthly  affairs ;  and  hoped  to  move  her  compassion  by  their 
humble  devotion,  and  their  liberal  gifts.  It  was  to  these  mul- 
titudes of  zealous  worshippers  of  the  new  Diana,  that  Zwingle 


*  Schuler,  &c.,  p.  241-245, 


GERMAN   REFORMED    CHURCH.  85 

felt  constrained  to  preach  the  pure  gospel  of  Christ,  to  expose 
their  superstitious  errors,  to  show  that  the  objects  of  their 
veneration  were  but  creations  of  man,  from  which  no  help 
could  be  obtained,  and  by  their  confidence  in  which  they  could 
only  be  deceived  and  ruined,  and  to  open  to  them  the  true 
way  of  salvation  for  the  oppressed  and  bewildered  soul.*  "  If 
any  thing,"  says  Schuler,  "could  equal  the  effect  of  Peter's 
first  sermon  in  Jerusalem,  or  Paul's  preaching  in  Asia,  it  was 
this  sermon  of  the  reformer."  Universal  astonishment  filled 
the  agitated  multitude.  Many  of  them  felt  most  deeply  pained 
that  any  man  should  presume  to  utter  such  things  in  that 
holy  place,  and  wondered  that  the  preacher  was  not  miracu- 
lously smitten  on  the  spot,  as  a  proof  of  the  virgin's  abhor- 


*  Tliis  festival  was  celebrated  on  Whitsuntide-Monday.  According  to 
Gieseler,  who  refers  for  his  authority  to  Anselm's  Chronicle  of  Bern,  it 
occurred  only  once  in  seven  years  ;  according  to  others,  it  was  annual.  It 
is  certain  that  there  was  annually  a  great  pilgrimage  to  Einsiedeln  on  Whit- 
suntide-Monday. Hottinger  says,  at  the  year  1524,  on  page  174:  "The 
great  annual  pilgrimage  to  Einsiedeln,  which  fell  this  year  on  the  7th  of 
May,  was  abolished ;"  and  Bernhard  Weiss,  in  his  historical  sketch,  pre- 
served in  FusUn's  Beilrage,  vol.  iv.,  p.  57,  observes:  "  It  was  resolved  to 
discontinue  the  pilgrimage  to  Einsiedeln  on  AVhitsuntide-Monday."  AVhether 
this  pilgrimage  and  the  festival  of  Engeliceihe  were  the  same,  or  not,  we  will 
not  undertake  to  determine.  Gieseler  asserts,  that  this  celebrated  sermon 
was  not  preached  until  the  year  1522,  when  Zwingle  and  Leo  Juda  visited 
Einsiedeln  from  Zurich ;  because  the  festival  oi  Engelweihe  happening  in  that 
year,  it  could  not  have  occurred  at  any  time  during  the  reformer's  residence 
at  Einsiedeln.  We  have  followed  M.  Schuler  in  his  Iluldreich  Zwingli,  &c., 
and  Solomon  Vogeli,  in  his  Jakr-Tafel  zu  Zwingli' s  Lehen.  The  latter  refers 
the  sermon  to  the  festival  of  Engelweihe,  in  the  year  1518.  Schuler  does  not 
give  its  date,  but  speaks  of  Zwingle's  preaching  at  the  same  festival  a  second 
time,  in  1522,  when  he  was  on  a  visit  from  Zurich.  See  Schuler,  ko..,  p. 
249.  J.  J.  Hottinger,  in  his  Ilistorie  der  Reforvmtion  in  der  Eidgenossenachaft, 
mentions  Zwingle's  preaching  at  this  festival  in  1522,  and  supposes  that  he 
then  preached  the  sermon  in  which  he  vindicated  himself  from  the  charge 
of  having  dishonored  the  holy  vii-gin ;  consequently  not  the  sann;  sermon, 
but  another.  The  difference  is  not  very  material ;  for  the  great  annual 
pilgrimage  was  also  designed  in  honor  of  the  virgin;  and  that  great  num- 
bers were  then  in  attendance,  is  evident  from  a  remark  of  Weiss,  in  the 
place  before  referred  to,  "that,  on  that  occasion,  one  person  was  obliged  to 
go  from  every  house." 
H 


8^  HISTORY   OF   THE 

ronce  and  of  his  own  damnation.  Others,  in  a  conflict  with 
themselves,  between  reverence  for  the  religion  of  their  fathers 
and  the  impression  of  truth  which  their  reason  approved  and 
their  conscience  felt,  were  desirous  of  more  light,  and  looked 
about,  in  anxious  hesitation,  for  something  upon  which  their 
hope  might  rest.  But  many,  arrested  by  the  power  and 
enlightened  by  the  rays  of  truth,  and  feeling  how  the  preacher, 
raised  above  all  earthly  considerations,  and  despising  every 
danger,  had  spoken  from  the  holy  convictions  of  the  heart, 
received  his  testimony,  and  applauded  him  as  the  apostle  of 
truth.  The  fact  that  Zwingle  was  not  molested  by  the  crowd, 
in  such  a  tumult  of  excited  feeling,  is  remarkable,  and  seems 
to  be  a  proof  that  much  the  greater  number  were  favorably 
impressed ;  and,  if  they  were  not  well  inclined  to  him,  were 
overawed  by  some  influence  which  they  could  neither  explain 
nor  resist.  Many  of  the  pilgrims  took  back  with  them  the 
gifts  and  the  memorials  they  had  brought  for  the  virgin  and 
the  saints.  Crowds  of  them,  both  high  and  low,  returned  to 
their  homes  agitated  with  various  feelings,  and  proclaimed  to 
those  whom  they  met  on  their  way  the  new  doctine  they  had 
heard  at  Einsiedeln.  These  caught  the  same  spkit,  whether 
of  conviction,  or  of  doubt,  or  of  disgust,  or  of  rage,  and  turned 
away  to  ponder  on  the  strange  occurrence,  or  to  communicate 
their  feelings  and  to  spread  the  infection.  The  number  of 
the  pilgrims  was  diminished.  The  people  of  Einsiedeln,  cap- 
tivated by  the  spirit  of  truth,  disregarded  their  temporal  loss, 
took  no  concern  about  the  future  discredit  of  their  far-famed 
place  of  favor,  and  rejoiced  in  their  knowledge  of  the  gospel 
of  Christ.  Long  after  Zwingle's  departure,  they  retained 
their  afi"ection  for  him,  and  preserved  the  doctrine  he  had 
taught  them.  He  preached  to  them  once  again,  after  his 
separation  from  them,  during  the  festival  of  dedication,  in 
1522,  when  he  came  from  Zurich,  in  company  wdth  Leo  Juda 
and  commander  Schmid.*     At  a  later  period,  by  a  violent 

*  A  commander  Tvas  a  knight  witk  an  ecclesiastical  benefice  and  clerical 
privilege. 


GERMAN   REFORMED    CHURCH.  87 

chano-e  in  tlie  religious  affairs  of  this  region,  when  popish 
bi^-otry  prevailed,  the  light  that  once  shone  upon  it  was  extin- 
guished, and  the  darkness  of  former  ages  returned  to  cover 
the  land."* 

"In  this  manner,"  says  Schuler,  "  Zwingle  reformed  before 
Luther  awoke,  and  while  he  was  still  combating  with  indul- 
gences, and  willing  to  subject  himself  unconditionally  to  the 
judgment  of  the  pope.  Pallavicini  judges  rightly,  that  Luther's 
reformation  began  with  indulgences  ;  but  Zwingle's,  which 
began  earlier,  arose  from  greater  and  weightier  causes.  For 
Zwingle  proceeded  in  the  commencement  from  the  principle. 
That  the  autliority  of  the  gospel  is  above  all  human  authority. 
Scripture  must  he  explained  hy  the  Scripture  ;  the  free  preach- 
ing of  the  gospel  must  he  permitted,  and  thereby,  under  the 
superintendence  of  the  pope  and  the  hierarchy,  the  church 
reformed.  The  examination  of  the  doctrine  of  the  church  was 
the  practical  apijlication  of  this  principle. f  It  was  about  this 
time  that  ^Zwingle  and  Capito  conferred  with  one  another,  by 
correspondence,  about  the  way  or  means  of  subjecting  the 
pope  to  the  authority  of  the  gospel,  and  leaving  him  nothing 
more  than  the  first  rank  among  the  ministers  of  the  church. 
Capito  says,  in  a  letter  to  Bullinger,  dated  in  1536,  "  Before 
Luther  had  risen  into  notice,  [antequam  in  lucem  emerserat,) 
while  Zwingle  was  yet  in  Einsiedeln,  we  communicated  with 
one  another  about  putting  doAvn  the  pope,"  [de  pontijice 
dejiciendo.)X 

The  date  of  the  commencement  of  Zwingle's  reformation  is 
not  definitely  fixed.  It  began  with  the  announcement  in  the 
church  of  Glarus  of  his  fundamental  principle,  The  authority 
of  the  gospel  is  above  all  human  authority,  which  was  followed 
by  a  course  of  preaching  in  which  he  made  the  Bible  alone 
his  standard  of  doctrine,  and  disregarded  the  so-called  tradi- 
tions of  the  church  and  the  decretals  of  the  popes. §    He  gives 


*  Schuler,  &c.,  p.  245-249.  f  Ibid.  p. 

X  Ibid.  p.  252  ;   Gieseler's  Lchrb.,  &c.,  p.  138,  note  27. 
g  Schuler,  &c.,  p.  143. 


88  HISTORY   OF   THE 

the  year  1516,  as  the  date  of  the  commencement  of  this 
course  of  preaching,  in  his  explanation  of  his  twentieth  thesis, 
published  in  1523,  but  does  not  name  the  time  of  the  year : 
it  must,  however,  have  been  the  early  part  of  it ;  for  in  the 
month  of  April,  of  the  same  year,  he  accepted  the  call  from 
Einseideln. 

Professor  Plank,  in  his  CfeschicJite  der  Untstehung  und 
Amhikhmg  des  Protestantischen  Lehrbegriffs,  vol.  ii.,  p.  252, 
is  unwilling  to  admit  that  Zwingle  preceded  Luther  as  a 
reformer.  After  noticing  a  solemn  remonstrance  of  a  diet  of 
the  confederates,  held  at  Luzern,  in  1524,  against  the  religious 
changes  which  had  taken  place  in  Zurich,  and  the  answer  of 
the  Zurichian  council,  he  observes,  in  a  note :  "  Not  only  in 
Zurich,  but  already  in  Grlarus,  and  in  Einsiedeln,  had  Zwingle 
been  zealous  in  bearing  public  testimony  against  the  abuses 
of  the  church,  and  many  errors  in  the  received  doctrinal 
system.  His  adherents  assure  us  that  he  began  to  spread  his 
doctrine  in  1516  ;  but  it  is  too  manifest  that  they  adopt  this 
date  only  to  have  him  arise  one  year  before  Luther.  It  is  cer- 
tain that  Zwingle  did  not  derive  his  knowledge,  from  whatever 
source  he  may  have  obtained  it,  from  the  writings  of  Luther : 
and  for  this  reason  it  is  a  matter  of  perfect  indifference,  so  far 
as  the  honor  of  either  is  concerned,  whether  he  began  to 
promulgate  it  before  Luther,  or  after  him,  or  at  the  same  time 
with  him.  On  the  other  hand,  it  is  worthy  of  notice,  that 
even  in  Zurich,  several  years  already  before  Zwingle  came 
there,  the  preachers  of  the  city  had  begun,  in  their  public 
discourses,  to  deviate  so  sensibly  from  the  old  doctrine,  that 
even  the  common  people  observed  the  difference.  The  council 
of  Zurich,  in  their  answer  to  the  remonstrance  of  the  con- 
federates, say,  'Five  years  ago,  already,  our  ministers  preached 
the  holy  gospel  and  the  word  of  God,  and  their  doctrine 
seemed  to  us  also,  at  first,  strange  and  singular,  as  it  differed 
from  what  we  had  heard  from  our  forefathers.  On  that 
account  there  was  then,  both  among  priests  and  laymen, 
a  diversity  of  opinions,  from  which  divisions  arose.  In  those 
times,  and  before  we  had  heard  of  Luther's  doctrine,  we  pro- 


GERMAN   REFORMED   CHURCH.  89 

mulgated  a  public  mandate,  requiring  all  the  preachers  to 
teach  the  holy  gospels  and  the  epistles  of  the  apostles,  agree- 
ably to  the  Spirit  of  God  and  the  true  divine  Scriptures,  and 
whatever  they  could  prove  by  them ;  but  to  be  silent  about 
other  incidental  innovations  and  ordinances.'  Thus  Zwingle 
found  in  Zurich  the  foundation  already  laid." 

It  is  surprising  that  this  learned  and  candid  historian 
should  have  fallen  into  so  many  errors  in  the  compass  of  a 
few  lines.     We  may  here  remark : 

1.  If  Zwingle  bore  his  testimony  against  the  abuses  and 
errors  of  the  church,  already,  in  Gflarus  and  in  Einsiedeln^ 
his  activity  as  a  reformer  began  there  ;  and  the  year  1516,  in 
which  he  closed  his  ministry  in  the  former  place  and  opened 
it  in  the  latter,  is  not  so  manifestly  assumed  by  his  adherents 
for  the  unworthy  purpose  imputed  to  them. 

2.  It  is  by  Zwingle  himself,  and  not  by  his  adherents  only, 
that  the  year  1516  is  given  as  the  commencement  of  his 
reformation. 

3.  The  remonstrance  of  the  diet  of  Luzern  and  the  answer 
of  the  council  of  Zurich  are  both  dated  in  1524.  Five  years 
before  that  date  will  bring  us  back  to  the  year  1519,  the  same 
in  which  Zwingle  began  his  ministry  in  Zurich;  and  the 
preachers,  of  whom  the  council  speak,  can  therefore  be  no 
other  than  Zwingle  and  his  assistants,  whom  he  had  previously 
prepared  for  the  evangelical  ministry.  His  predecessor,  Hoff- 
man, opposed  his  reforming  measures ;  and  Battman,  who 
succeeded  the  former,  was  a  bigoted  papist.  We  do  not 
mean  that  there  were  not  men  who  saw  the  corruption  of  the 
church  as  early  as  Zwingle,  such,  for  example,  as  Capito ;  but 
none  of  them  prepared  Zwingle's  way  in  Zurich. 

It  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  Zwingle  even  now  had  a  clear  ^ 
view  of  all  the  errors  of  the  reigning  religion,  and  understood 
fully  the  whole  system  of  Christian  truth.  He  still  enter- 
tained a  profound  veneration  for  the  church  of  Home,  which 
he  distinguished  from  her  corruption,  and  had  no  thought  of 
abolishing  the  papacy  and  the  clerical  hierarchy,  whose  insti- 
tution he  seems  to  have  still  regarded  as  divine.  But  he 
h2  12 


90  HISTORY   OF   THE 

perceived  clearly  that  their  authority  was  not,  as  they  pre- 
tended, superior  to  the  Holy  Scriptures,  but  subordinate  to 
them ;  and  his  aim  was  to  have  them  take  their  proper  place 
and  perform  their  appropriate  functions  in  the  church,  as 
ministers  of  the  gospel,  and  not  its  masters. 

Luther  was  still  slower  in  divesting  himself  of  his  attach- 
ment to  the  errors  of  popery.  The  commencement  of  his 
reformation  is  dated  at  the  31st  day  of  October,  1517,  the 
day  on  which  he  posted  his  ninety-five  theses,  on  the  subject 
of  papal  indulgences,  at  the  principal  door  of  the  church  in 
Wittenberg.  The  notorious  John  Tetzel,  and  his  associate, 
Bartholomew,  were  preaching  and  selling  indulgences  for  sins, 
which  were  to  liberate  the  buyers  from  the  punishments  of 
purgatory,  as  well  as  from  the  penances  imposed  by  the 
church,  for  all  sins,  past,  present,  and  to  come,  without 
obliging  them  to  repentance  and  amendment.  While  these 
impudent  knaves  had  taken  their  stand  at  Jueterbock  and 
Zerbst,  near  Wittenberg,  many  of  the  people  came  to  Luther 
to  receive  absolution.  Li  their  confessions,  which  necessarily 
preceded  absolution,  they  acknowledged  most  flagitious  iniqui- 
ties without  manifesting  any  compunction,  and  refused  to 
submit  to  the  penances  which  he  thought  proper  to  impose, 
alleging  that  they  could  buy  the  pope's  indulgence,  which 
released  them  from  that  obligation.  Luther's  feehngs  revolted 
against  so  horrid  a  prostitution  of  indulgences ;  he  denied 
that  they  could  be  benefited  by  them,  and  refused  to  grant 
absolution  until  there  should  be  signs  of  penitence.  Tetzel, 
on  learning  these  facts,  denounced  him  as  a  heretic,  and  made 
•pompous  demonstrations  of  a  determination  to  visit  upon  him 
the  punishment  of  that  odious  crime.  Luther  thereupon 
preached  his  sermon  "  On  Absolution  and  Grace,"  in  which 
he  declared  and  vindicated  his  sentiments  respecting  indul- 
gences and  the  forgiveness  of  sins,  and,  full  of  confidence  in 
his  opinions,  subsequently  posted  his  theses  at  the  church- 
door,  with  a  challenge  to  the  learned  to  dispute  with  him,  on 
the  topics  embraced  therein,  on  the  following  day. 

The  church  in  Wittenberg  had,  since  the  close  of  the  foui'- 


GERMAN  REFORMED  CHURCH.  91 

tcenth  centurj,  enjoyed  the  privilege  of  a  papal  indulgence 
for  all  such  as  should  visit  it,  and  present  their  liberal  gifts, 
on  the  day  of  All  Saints,  being  the  first  day  of  November ; 
and  Leo  X,  had  greatly  enlarged  this  privilege  in  the  year 
1516.  The  first  of  November  was,  therefore,  a  grand  festival 
in  Wittenherg,  at  which  prodigious  numbers  of  pilgrims  at- 
tended ;  and  the  cathedral  church,  a  sanctuary  dedicated  to 
all  the  saints,  was  the  great  centre  around  which  this  multitude 
moved.  Luther  embraced  the  opportunity  which  was  thus 
presented  to  give  the  utmost  publicity  to  his  sentiments  on  the 
subject  of  indulgences,  and  put  up  his  theses  on  the  31st  of 
October,  in  the  place  where  they  would  be  most  conspicuous, 
and  challenged  the  learned,  who  were  in  attendance,  to  dispute 
with  him  on  the  following  day.* 

Schroeck,  in  his  Christ.  Kirchengesch,  seit  der  Reformation, 
remarks  upon  Luther's  theses  :  "  Important  as  these  scriptural 
doctrines  were,  these  propositions  by  no  means  embrace  a 
complete  reformation  of  the  doctrinal  system  or  the  ecclesi- 
astical constitution  of  his  times.  He  believes  the  supremacy 
of  the  pope,  continues  his  subjection  to  him,  and  does  not  give 
the  remotest  hint  of  a  design  to  separate  from  the  communion 
of  the  Romish  church.  He  does  not,  by  any  means,  reject 
papal  indulgences  upon  the  whole,  but  wishes  only  that  they 
be  preached  agreeably  to  the  pope's  intention.  He  believes 
the  existence  of  a  purgatory,  although  he  denies  that  the 
remission  granted  by  indulgences  can  be  extended  to  the 
punishments  of  that  state.  He  does  not  reject  penances,  but 
he  refers  them  chiefly  to  the  church,  which  has  appointed 
them.  Finally,  he  recommends  good  works,  or  the  pious 
activity  of  the  Christian,  but  does  not  believe  that  they  are 
meritorious  in  the  sight  of  God.  His  whole  object  went  only 
to  show  that  the  prevailing  misapplication  of  indulgences  was 
as  inconsistent  with  the  doctrine  of  Christ  as  with  true  godli- 
ness. Upon  the  whole,  though  in  these  propositions  he  pro- 
pounded some  unusual  and  peculiar  opinions,  they  could  not 

*  Schroeck's  Kirch.  Gesch.  scit  der  Ref.,  vol.  i.  p.  121. 


92  HISTORY   OF   THE 

subject  him  to  the  suspicion  of  heresy.  They  were  set  forth 
to  invite  discussion;  and  as  the  supreme  authority  in  the 
church  was  fully  recognised  in  them,  it  was  in  itself  evident 
that  their  author  submitted  every  thing  to  its  judgment."* 

The  same  author  observes :  "  The  letters  also,  which,  together 
with  copies  of  his  propositions,  he  addressed  to  the  archbishop 
of  Mentz,  the  bishops  of  Brandenburg^  Meissen,  Merseburg, 
and  Zeitz,  were,  probably,  all  designed  to  represent  respect- 
fully to  these  prelates,  that  he  desired  only  that  the  offensive 
abuse  of  indulgences  should  be  abolished,  and  had  no  intention 
to  make  any  change  in  the  creed,  or  in  the  ecclesiastical  con- 
stitution. This  is  justly  concluded  from  the  only  one  of  them 
which  has  been  preserved."! 

In  a  protestation  of  his  innocence  of  the  guilt  of  heresy, 
published  soon  after  his  theses,  he  solemnly  declares,  "  that 
in  those  propositions  he  meant  to  assert  only  what  could  be 
educed  from  the  Scriptures, /rom  the  fathers  whom  the  church 
has  approved,  from  the  ecclesiastical  laivs,  and  from  the  decre- 
tals of  the  popes."     All  these,  therefore,  he  received  at  this 
time  as  equally  parts  of  the  rule  of  faith.J     In  1518,  he  pub- 
lished his  Eesolutiones,  or  explanations  of  his  theses,  and  sent 
a  copy  of  the  work  to  the  pope,  together  with  a  letter,  in  which, 
after  noticing  the  course  pursued  by  the  preachers  of  indul- 
gences, he  says :  "  I  sought,  at  least,  to  oppose  them  with 
mildness,  by  calling  their  doctrine  into  question  in  a  disputa- 
tion, in  which  the  learned  only  were  to  participate.     This  is 
the  conflagration  which  they  say  is  consuming  the  whole  world. 
Perhaps  it  offends  them  that  I  alone,  who,  by  your  apostolical 
authority,  am  a  professor  of  theology,  have  a  right,  agreeably 
to  the  custom  of  all  universities,  to  dispute  in  this  one,  not 
only  about  indulgences,  but  concerning  incomparably  weightier 
matters,  even  the  divine  forgiveness  of  sins.     It  is  a  wonder 
to  me  how  my  solitary  disputation  could  go  forth,  before  all 
others,  into  all  the  world.     It  was  written  only  for  these 


*  Schroeck's  Kirch.  Gescli.  seit  der  Ref.,  vol.  i.  p.  129. 
t  Ibid.  p.  131.  t  Ibid.  p.  130. 


GERMAN   REFORMED   CHURCH.  93 

reo-ioni5,  in  the  manner  of  controversial  propositions  somewhat 
obscure,  not  dogmatical,  and  it  is  to  me  incredible  that  all  can 
understand  it."  *  *  *  *  "  In  order  now  to  appease  my  ene- 
mies, and  to  satisfy  the  desire  of  many,  I  put  forth  these 
trifles ;  and,  for  the  greater  safety,  I  publish  them  under  your 
name.  Every  one  will  perceive  in  them  how  sincerely  and 
uprightly  I  have  endeavored  to  sustain  the  honor  of  the  eccle- 
siastical authority,  and  of  the  keys,  and  how  unjustly  my 
adversaries  have  defamed  me.  If  I  had  not  acted  otherwise 
than  they  represent,  and  not  only  for  the  purpose  of  discus- 
sion, the  elector  of  Saxony,  who  so  much  loves  the  catholic 
and  apostolic  truth,  would  not  have  tolerated  me  in  this  uni- 
versity." He  closes  by  casting  himself  at  the  pope's  feet,  with 
the  humble  supplication,  "  Quicken  me,  kill  me,  call,  recall, 
approve,  condemn,  as  you  will.  In  your  voice  I  shall  recognise 
the  voice  of  Christ  speaking  in  you.  If  I  have  deserved  death, 
I  do  not  refuse  to  die.""*  In  the  following  year,  the  mild  and 
insidious  Miltitz  engaged  him  to  promise  that  he  would  in 
future  maintain  silence  on  the  subject  of  indulgences,  if  the 
same  thing  were  done  also  by  his  adversaries ;  that  he  would 
write  an  humble  and  submissive  letter  to  the  pope,  acknowledg- 
ing that  he  had  acted  too  hastily ;  and  that  he  would  publish 
an  apology  to  the  world,  and  exhort  every  one  to  be  obedient 
to  the  church.  In  his  letter  to  the  pope,  he  says :  "  Those 
only  whom  I  opposed  have  done  the  church  so  much  harm  and 
scandal.  I  protest  before  God,  that  I  never  intended  to  im- 
pugn her  authority,  or  yours,  to  which  none  is  superior  except 
that  of  Christ."t  His  apology  was  published  under  the  title, 
Unterricht  auf  etliche  Artikel  so  ihm  von  seinen  Ahgoennern 
aufgelegt  und  zugemessen  worden, — (Information  concerning 
several  articles  that  have  been  ascribed  and  imputed  to  him.) 
In  this  publication  he  says :  "  That,  inasmuch  as  the  common 
people  had  been  made  suspicious  of  him  respecting  some  doc- 
trines, and  many  had  begun  to  speak  contemptuously  of  the 

*  Schroeck's  Erch.  Gesch.  seit  der  Ref.,  yoI.  i.  p.  146. 
t  Ibid.  p.  171. 


94  HISTORY   OF   THE 

intercession  of  the  blessed  saints,  of  purgatory,  and  of  others 
like  them,  he  deemed  it  necessary  to  explain  himself  on  these 
subjects.  lie  maintained,  with  all  Christendom,  the  venera- 
tion and  invocation  of  the  saints ;  for  it  could  not  be  denied 
that  God  docs  still  work  miracles  by  their  bodies,  and  at  their 
graves ;  but  he  pronounced  it  unchristian  to  invoke  the  saints 
rather  for  temporal  than  for  spiritual  gifts ;  and  some  were  so 
foolish  as  to  imagine  that  the  saints  could  perform  such  things 
themselves,  Avhereas  they  procure  them  only  by  their  interces- 
sion with  God.  Further,  he  considers  it  a  settled  point,  that 
the  poor  souls  in  purgatory  suffer  great  torment  there,  and 
that  it  is  our  duty  to  help  them  with  prayers,  fastings,  and 
alms.  But  of  what  kind  that  torment  is,  he  does  not  know  ; 
neither  does  he  think  it  safe  to  rush  into  purgatory  Avith  indul- 
gences, and  thus  to  thrust  oneself  forcibly  into  the  secret 
judgments  of  God.  With  regard  to  indulgences,  he  thinks 
the  common  man  needs  to  know  no  more  than  that  they  are  a 
release  from  satisfactions  for  sins  or  penances,  and  far  inferior 
to  good  works,  especially  to  alms.  He  contends  against  the 
prejudice  that  the  transgression  of  the  church-laws  is  among 
the  greatest  sins.  On  the  contrary,  profane  swearing,  cursing, 
slander,  or  a  refusal  to  help  one's  neighbor,  is  a  much  greater 
sin  than  eating  flesh  on  a  Friday ;  and,  indeed,  we  might  be 
pious  by  observing  the  laws  of  God,  if  there  even  Avere  no  laws 
of  the  church.  Of  good  works,  he  thinks  that  they  can  be 
called  good  only  when  they  are  wrought  in  us  by  divine  grace, 
and  that  we  should  not  proudly  trust  in  them.  Finally,  he 
thinks  God  has  honored  the  church  of  Rome  above  all  others, 
and  that  she  is  become  venerable  through  many  hundred 
thousand  martyrs.  Though  the  state  of  things  in  Ro7ne  might 
well  be  better  than  it  is,  there  is,  nevertheless,  no  cause  of 
sufiicient  weight  for  a  separation  from  her ;  yea,  the  w^orse 
the  state  of  things  in  the  church  is,  the  more  ought  we  to 
cleave  to  her,  because  she  can  be  reformed  only  by  union 
and  love.  How  far  the  authority  of  the  Roman  see  extends, 
is  a  question  which  the  learnod  may  determine ;  it  is  of  no 
importance  to  the  salvation  of  the  soul ;   for   Christ  has  not 


GERMAN   REFORMED   CHURCH.  95 

foimded  his  church  upon  this  question,  but  upon  humility,  love 
and  union."* 

Such  were  Luther's  theological  opinions  in  the  early  part 
of  1519,  when  Zwingle  was  preaching  in  Zurich,  unfettered 
by  traditions,  decretals,  ecclesiastical  canons,  and  church- 
fathers,  declaring  the  doctrine  of  the  New  Testament,  and 
sapping  the  foundations  of  popish  superstition.  Luther  had 
discovered  some  important  truth ;  but  his  conceptions  were 
yet  obscure,  and  his  convictions  unsettled.  There  was  one 
doctrine,  however,  upon  which  his  mind  was  clear,  and  his 
faith  firm:  the  doctrine  of  justification  by  grace,  without 
merit,  through  faith  in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  This  doctrine, 
which  afterwards  became  the  basis  of  his  theological  system, 
he  first  learned  to  know  practically  in  the  course  of  his  expe- 
rience of  the  work  of  divine  grace  in  his  own  heart,  when  he 
was  turned  from  darkness  to  light,  and  from  the  power  of 
Satan  unto  God ;  and  with  it,  he  learned  also  those  doctrines 
with  which  it  is  immediately  connected  ;  viz.,  the  utter  desti- 
tution of  the  sinner  before  God,  his  total  inability  to  save 
himself,  the  absolute  necessity  of  the  Holy  Spirit's  agency  in 
conversion,  and  the  freeness  of  divine  grace. f     His  religious 

*  Schroeck,  &c.,  pp.  172-174. 

f  It  is  generally  said,  that  Luther's  reformation  proceeded  from  indul- 
gences. This  assertion  is  both  vague  and  inaccurate.  His  opposition  to 
indulgences  was  but  the  first  application  of  the  principle  from  •which  his 
reformation  proceeded,  and  by  which  it  was  governed  and  defined  through- 
out. Luther's  first  principle  was  the  doctrine  of  gratuitous  justification  by 
faith  in  the  promise  of  God;  the  proposition,  That  Qod forgives  sins  by  an 
act  of  mere  grace,  without  any  merit  on  the  sinner^ s  part,  on  the  sole  condition  of 
faith  in  his  promise,  and  for  the  alone  sake  of  the  death  of  Christ.  He  had 
attained  to  the  knowledge  of  this  principle  by  his  own  experience,  in  the 
course  of  his  conversion  to  God.  His  knowledge  of  it  was,  therefore,  practi- 
aal,  and  not  theoretical ;  and  he  might  have  retained  with  it,  to  the  end  of 
his  life,  the  whole  system  of  the  papacy,  without  paying  much  attention  to 
their  inconsistency,  perhaps  even  without  observing  it,  if  he  had  not  been 
disturbed  in  the  possession  of  it  by  the  scandalous  preaching  of  indulgences, 
and  the  pertinacious  defence  of  that  abuse  by  the  hierarchy.  It  was  because 
the  doctrine  of  indulgences  was  in  direct  opposition  to  the  doctrine  of  gra- 
tuitous justification,  in  which  alone  he  found  comfort  and  rest  for  his  soul, 


96  HISTORY   OF  THE 

experience  was  the  key  that  unlocked  the  Bible,  and  enabled 
him  to  understand  fully  its  instructions  upon  these  essential 
points ;  and  he  found  them  so  perfectly  adapted  to  his  spirit- 
ual wants,  and  so  tranquillizing  to  the  soul,  that  he  could 
not  hesitate  to  give  them  his  entire  assent.  Yet,  such  was 
his  attachment  to  the  doctrines  and  forms  of  the  reigning 
religion,  that  he  did  not  see  their  inconsistency  with  these 
scriptural  principles,  and  he  managed,  somehow,  to  form 
them  all  into  a  common  system,  and  to  remain  contented  in 
the  bosom  of  the  church,  a  half-enlightened,  pious  Papist. 

When  Luther  rose  to  bear  his  testimony  against  the  impious 
traffic  in  indulgences,  he  had  not  the  remotest  idea  of  attempt- 
ing a  reformation  of  the  church.     He  was  concerned  only  to 


that  he  rose  up  against  indulgences  ;  and  for  the  same  reason  he  subse- 
quently rose  up  against  every  other  popish  abuse. 

This  principle  determined  the  form  of  Luther's  theological  system,  which 
was  strictly  Augustinian,  and  diametrically  opposite  to  the  system  of  salva- 
tion by  works.  He  admitted,  both  into  his  theology  and  his  mode  of  worship, 
as  much  of  the  doctrine  and  the  ceremonies  of  the  church  as  his  principle 
permitted,  and  excluded  from  both  only  what  was  utterly  incompatible 
with  it. 

The  same  principle  gave  shape  to  his  idea  of  the  rule  of  faith.  He  re- 
jected the  decretals  and  ecclesiastical  canons,  when  he  saw  that  they  con- 
tlicted  with  it ;  in  his  judgment  of  the  several  portions  of  the  Bible,  he 
valued  one  book  higher  than  another,  just  as  he  found  this  doctrine  more  or 
less  prominent  in  it ;  and  he  rejected  the  epistle  of  James  because  it  seemed 
to  teach  the  doctrine  of  justification  by  works,  and  not  by  faith  alone. 

Zwingle's  first  principle  was  the  proposition.  The  Bible  alone  is  the  rule  of 
faith  and  practice.  He  had  attained  to  the  knowledge  of  this  principle,  not 
by  experience,  but  by  reflection ;  and  his  knowledge  of  it  was,  therefore, 
not  practical,  but  theoretical.  This  principle,  thus  known,  led  him  into  an 
earlier,  a  freer,  and  a  more  extensive  examination  of  the  doctrines,  laws, 
and  usages  of  the  church,  and  of  the  claims  of  the  papacy,  than  Luther's 
was,  and  carried  him  farther  in  his  reformation  than  the  Saxon  reformer 
felt  himself  obliged  to  go.  While  Luther  retained  whatever  was  not  incom- 
patible with  the  fundamental  doctrine  of  justification  by  faith  alone,  Zwin- 
gle  rejected  whatever  was  not  plainly  warranted  by  the  Holy  Scripture.  The 
latter,  therefore,  swept  away  some  of  tho  rites  and  usages  of  the  church 
which  the  former  only  modified,  or  left  undisturbed.  In  substance,  how- 
ever, the  two  reformers,  though  setting  out  from  diiferent  principles,  came 
to  the  same  result. 


GERMAN   REFORMED    CHURCH.  97 

repress  that  single  abuse,  and  would  not  have  done  as  much 
as  he  did  for  that  end,  if  Tetzel's  denunciations  and  threats 
had  not  provoked  him  ;  and  -when  expostulated  -with,  in  mild 
and  winning  terms,  he  promised  to  be  silent  in  future,  if 
silence  were  imposed  upon  his  adversaries  also.  In  his  ex- 
planations of  his  theses,  published  soon  after  he  had  risen,  he 
says,  "  The  church  needs  a  reformation ;  but  this  is  not  the 
business  of  an  individual,  nor  of  the  pope,  nor  of  many  car- 
dinals, but  of  the  whole  world ;  yea,  it  is  the  work  of  God 
only.  But  the  time  of  this  reformation  He  only  knows  who 
created  the  times."*  Zwingle,  on  the  contrary,  had  con- 
ceived the  design  of  reforming  the  church  before  he  arose. 
He  considered  a  reformation  indispensable,  not  only  in  the 
lives  of  the  clergy  and  the  people,  but  in  the  doctrine  and  the 
worship  of  the  church.  He  thought  a  reformation  could  not 
be  longer  delayed ;  that  every  thing  was  fast  ripening  for  a 
change  ;  and,  if  it  were  not  a  change  for  the  better,  there 
would  be  a  change  for  the  worse,  in  a  general  crash  and 
wreck  of  both  church  and  state.  He  had  found  the  means, 
and  was  maturing  the  plan,  of  a  thorough  reformation,  and 
was  prepared  to  act  his  part  in  it  before  he  attempted,  ex- 
ternally, to  reform  any  thing.  Zwingle  began  where  Luther 
ended,  and  ended  where  Luther  began.  His  first  act  was  to 
lay  down  his  great  principle.  The  autliority  of  the  gospel  is 
above  all  human  authority.  From  this  principle  he  proceeded, 
in  the  exposition  of  the  New  Testament,  to  show  what  were 
the  doctrines  of  Christ  and  his  apostles,  and  left  his  hearers 
to  judge  how  consistent  with  them  were  the  doctrines  of  the 
priesthood.  And  he  ended  with  attacks  upon  the  edifice  of 
popish  errors  and  abuses,  which  were  now  seen  to  be  the 
baseless  fabric  of  a  long  delusion.  Luther's  first  act,  as  a 
reformer,  was  an  attack  upon  a  popish  abuse.  It  was  fortu- 
nate for  him  that  the  sale  of  indulgences  was  already  become 
generally  odious  with  those  wdio  were  capable  of  reflection,  or 
possessed  a  spark  of  virtue  :  the  public  mind  was  prepared, 


*  Sctroeck,  &c.,  p.  144. 
13 


98  HISTORY   OF   THE 

and  the  community  needed  but  a  leader,  to  rise  up,  almost  as 
one  man,  against  that  detestable  imposture.  From  this  act, 
he  proceeded  to  examine  more  narroAvlj  the  teaching  of  the 
Scriptures,  and  the  foundations  of  popery,  and  to  discover,  as 
he  progressed,  that  there  were  other  errors  and  other  abuses 
besides  those  which  he  had  seen,  until  he  saw  that  the  whole  sys- 
tem of  the  papacy  was  a  mass  of  corruption,  and  its  foundations 
were  laid  in  falsehood :  and  he  ended  with  Zwingle's  proposi- 
tion. The  gospel  is  above  all  human  authority^  and  is  the  only 
rule  of  faith,  the  only  standard  of  Christian  truth.  Luther 
loved  the  Bible  as  much  as  Zwingle  loved  it.  But  he  did  not 
use  it  with  the  same  freedom.  What  he  had  learned  from  it, 
in  the  beginning  of  his  controversy,  he  submitted  to  the  judg- 
ment of  the  pope,  as  the  authorized  interpreter  of  the  Holy 
Scriptures  and  the  supreme  judge  of  controversies ;  from  the 
pope  ill-informed,  he  appealed  to  the  pope  when  better  in- 
formed ;  his  next  appeal  was  from  the  pope  to  a  general  coun- 
cil ;  and,  last  of  all,  he  said.  Nothing  hut  the  ivord  of  God 
can  decide.  This  was  what  Zwingle  said  in  the  outset  of  his 
career:  Wot  the  pope,  not  the  fathers,  not  the  councils,  no  hu- 
man authority,  hut  the  Bihle  aloyie  !  Hence,  he  never  appealed 
to  the  judgment  of  the  pope,  nor  to  the  general  council  which 
the  Christian  world  demanded,  but  to  the  Holy  Scriptures 
alone. 

The  treatment  given  to  Zwingle  by  the  rulers  of  the  church 
differed  remarkably  from  that  which  Luther  received  at  their 
hands.  None  of  his  superiors  cited  him  to  appear  before  him, 
and  to  answer  for  his  doctrine :  still  less  was  a  recantation 
demanded  from  him  ;  both  the  bishop  of  the  diocese,  the  pope's 
legate  in  Switzerland,  and  the  pope  himself,  were  silent  on 
this  subject.  It  is  natural  to  ask.  What  were  the  causes  of 
this  forbearance  toward  Zwingle,  while  Luther  was  so  harshly 
treated  ?  J.  S.  Vater,  in  his  continuation  oi  Henkes  Kirchen 
Geschichte,  vol.  ix.,  p.  67,  says :  "  Zwingle  was  not  excom- 
municated. The  pope  would  have  had  to  excommunicate  the 
government  of  Zurich.  For  this  there  was  still  time  enough. 
For  if  the  authority  of  the  pope  were  once  re-established  in 


GERMAN    REFORMED    CHURCH.  99 

Germany^  Zurich,  which  then  stood  as  yet  alone,  would  fall 
by  an  interdict   and   a  crusade  ;    which  latter  the  cardinals 
recommended  yet  to  pope  Adrian."     All  this  may  be  true ; 
but  it  is  unsatisfactory.     Adrian  became  pope  in  January, 
1522.     At  that  time,  Zwingle  had  already  labored  in  Zurich 
three  years ;  and  nearly  six  years  had  elapsed  since  he  had 
begun  his  reforming  activity,  and  had  fallen  under  the  suspi- 
cion of  heresy.     His  doctrines  had  now  been  extensively  dis- 
seminated,  and  large  numbers  had   embraced  them.      This 
occurred  under  the  eyes  of  the  dignitaries  of  the  church,  and 
in  the  presence  of  the  pope's  legate,  and  was  doubtless  known 
at  Rome  from  its  beginning ;  yet  no  one  interposed  his  au- 
thority to  stop  him ;  and  even  the  pope  continued  to  show  to 
him  marks  of  his  favor.     On  the  contrary,  Luther  was  cited 
to  appear  before  the  pope  at  Home,  in  July,  1518,  within  less 
than  one  year  after  his  first  public  opposition  to  Tetzel,  and 
when  he  had  yet  gone  no  farther  than  to  oppose  what  he 
esteemed  an  abuse  of  the  pope's  authority,  and,  in  every  thing 
else,  that  had  yet  appeared,  adhered  to  the  church  and  the 
papacy.     Vater  insinuates  that  the  Swiss  reformer  was  too 
insignificant,  in    comparison   with    Luther,    to    create   much 
apprehension  to  the  hierarchy.     It  is,  however,  more  probable, 
that  Leo  X.,  who  excommunicated  Luther,  knew  more,  at  that 
time,  of  Zwingle,  than  he  knew  of  Luther,  and  entertained  a 
respect  for  the  former  which  he  did  not  feel  for  the  latter. 
He  kncAV  Zwingle  through  cardinal  Shinner,  since  his  Italian 
campaigns  in  the  service  of  the  pontiff;  he  knew  him  as  a  man 
of  refined  taste  and  elegant  literature,  as  a  Swiss  patriot  whose 
influence  was  extensively  felt  in  his  own  country,  and  as  a 
zealous  opponent  of  the  French  party  in  Switzerland,  which 
was  then  inimical  to  the  interests  and  the  projects  of  the  court 
of  Rome.     For  all  these  reasons,  he  might  value  him  too 
highly  to  ofi'end  him,  and  be  desirous  of  gaining  him  over  by 
kindness,  by  pensions,  and  by  the  prospect  of  preferment, 
just  as  he  kept  Erasmus  of  Rotterdam  within  certain  bounds. 
As  a  proof  of  the  estimation  in  which  he  was  held  at  Rome, 
the  pope  refused  to  accept  the  resignation  of  his  pension  when 


100  HISTORY   OP   THE 

Zwingle  offered  it,  in  1517 ;  and,  in  the  year  following,  the 
legate,  cardinal  Pucci,  conferred  on  him  the  dignity  of  acolyte 
chaplain  to  the  popc^  an  honorary  distinction,  which  authorized 
the  expectation  of  higher  preferment.  In  the  diploma  by 
which  the  honor  was  conferred,  the  cardinal  observes  that, 
distinguished  as  Zwingle  Avas  by  his  virtues  and  merits,  he 
was  commended  to  him  both  by  hia  own  experience  and  by 
Zwingle's  honorable  reputation ;  that  the  pope  esteemed  him 
worthy,  as  a  man  of  letters,  to  receive  a  mark  of  his  paternal 
kindness ;  that  he,  the  legate,  by  virtue  of  the  authority 
received  from  the  pope,  appoints  him  to  the  honorable  dis- 
tinction of  an  acolyte  chaplain  to  his  holiness,  by  which  he 
might  perceive  the  pope's  good  disposition  toward  him ;  and 
the  legate  finally  expresses  the  wish  that  Zwingle  may  go  on 
from  good  to  better,  and  move  both  the  pope  and  him  to 
farther  acts  of  favor  and  honor.* 

It  was,  therefore,  not  contempt  of  Zwingle  and  his  reforma- 
tion that  prevented  Leo  from  an  attempt  to  crush  him  at  once 
by  an  act  of  power.  It  was,  on  the  contrary,  rather  the  convic- 
tion that  such  a  measure  would  fail  of  its  object,  and  that  it  was 
safer,  and  more  useful,  to  make  trial  of  kindness,  and  to  allure 
by  flatteries  and  bribes.  Of  Luther,  the  pope  knew  at  first 
almost  nothing ;  he  learned  that  he  was  a  professor  in  the 
university  at  Wittenberc/^  and  belonged  to  a  convent  of  monks 
in  that  city ;  and  he  looked  upon  his  quarrel  with  Tetzel  as 
one  of  those  wrangles  between  two  monks  of  different  orders, 
which  were  of  frequent  occurrence,  and  led  to  no  dangerous 
results.  When  the  disturbance  assumed  a  more  serious  aspect, 
and  Leo's  attention  was  drawn  to  it,  Luther's  humble  and 
submissive  letters,  and  his  ardent  professions  of  reverence  and 
submission  to  the  church  and  her  visible  head,  might  well 
make  the  impression  that  he  already  quailed  under  the  dread 
of  papal  wrath,  and  that  nothing  was  wanting  to  crush  him  at 
once,  and  to  strike  a  salutary  terror  into  the  minds  of  the 
devout   Germans,  but  a  fulmination  of  his  spiritual  thunder. 

*  Schuler,  &c.,  p.  262. 


GERMAN   REFORMED    CHURCH.  101 

That  Leo  discovered  his  mistake,  there  is  no  doubt ;  but  it  was 
then  too  late :  the  claim  of  infallibility  forbade  him  to  recede  ; 
and  nothing,  therefore,  remained,  but  to  persist  in  the  same 
course,  and  to  hurl  his  ghostly  anathemas  at  the  heads  of  Lu- 
ther and  his  followers,  until  his  stores  were  exhausted. 

Though  Zwingle  felt  very  deeply  the  necessity  of  a  reforma- 
tion, and  thought  the  time  for  its  accomplishment  at  hand,  he 
had  no  desire  to  appear  in  the  character  of  a  leader  in  such  an 
undertaking,  and  to  immortalize  his  name  as  the  chief  of  a  new 
order  of  things.  Two  modes  of  effecting  the  desired  object  were 
presented  to  his  mind ;  viz. :  1.  A  reformation  of  the  church 
within  herself,  by  the  free  preaching  of  the  unadulterated  word 
of  God,  under  the  direction  of  the  pope  and  the  higher  clergy ; 
and,  2.  The  reformation  of  the  church,  by  separating  from  the 
communion  of  Home,  and  calling  out  from  thence  all  those 
in  whom  the  word  of  God  should  be  made  effectual.  He  pre- 
ferred the  former  of  these  modes,  and  adhered  to  it  as  long 
as  a  hope  of  its  feasibility  remained,  and  until,  in  1523,  the 
force  of  circumstances  compelled  him  to  abandon  it.  He 
looked  upon  the  pope  and  the  higher  clergy  as  the  persons  to 
whom  both  the  duty  and  the  honor  belonged  of  presiding  over 
the  reformation  of  the  church ;  and  he  addressed  himself  to 
such  of  them  as  Avere  accessible  to  him,  and  urged  them,  by 
every  consideration  of  duty  and  of  interest,  to  engage  seriously 
in  the  arduous  work.  At  the  same  time,  he  stated  to  them 
distinctly,  that,  if  they  neglected  to  perform  this  imperative 
duty,  he  and  his  associates,  who  knew  the  errors  of  the  church 
and  the  doctrine  of  the  Holy  Scriptures,  would,  nevertheless, 
proclaim  the  truth  which  God  had  revealed ;  and  if  any  dis- 
orders should  arise  in  consequence  of  so  doing,  the  guilt 
thereof  would  not  lie  upon  them,  but  upon  those  who  ought  to 
have  conducted  the  enterprise,  and  would  not.  He  addressed 
himself  for  this  object,  personally  or  in  writing,  to  his 
superior,  the  bishop  of  Constance  ;  to  John  Faber,  the  bishop's 
vicar  and  his  own  friend ;  to  cardinal  Shinner ;  and  to  the 
pope's  legates  in  Switzerland^  Ennius  and  Pucci :  and  from 
all  these  he  received  promises  which  they  never  performed- 


102  HISTORY   OF   THE 

Cardinal  Shinner  was  at  the  time  an  exile  from  his  bishop- 
ric, having  been  driven  from  it  by  the  French  party,  to  ■whom 
he  was  zealously  opposed,  and  spent  his  time,  in  part,  at 
Einsicdeln.  The  legates,  Ennius  and  Pucci,  had  their  resi- 
dence by  turns  in  Zurich  and  Einsiedeln.  Here  Zwingle 
had  convenient  access  to  them,  and  improved  it  to  press  upon 
them,  Avith  all  the  earnestness  of  deep  conviction  and  of  fer- 
vent zeal,  the  object  that  was  so  near  his  heart.  Shinner 
acknowledged  the  lamentable  state  of  the  church,  and  pro- 
mised that,  if  he  were  reinstated  in  his  bishopric,  he  would 
authorize  the  free  preaching  of  the  gospel,  and  exert  all  his 
strength  to  purge  away  the  prevailing  errors  and  abuses. 
Of  Pucci,  Zwingle  says,  in  his  answer  to  Valentine  Compar, 
"  Four  times  did  the  legate  converse  with  me  on  this  subject, 
and  I  received  from  him  the  most  splendid  promises.  I  ex- 
plained to  him  freely  what  ought  to  be  done,  and  added  that, 
with  God's  help,  I  would  proceed  to  the  preaching  of  the 
gospel,  and  the  papacy  would  be  not  a  little  shaken  by  it." 
The  same  Pucci,  who  made  these  splendid  promises,  was  the 
cardinal  Pucci  who  said  to  pope  Leo  X.,  in  the  Lateran 
council,  "  Of  thee  it  is  that  the  prophet  has  said.  All  kings 
shall  fall  down  before  thee,  and  all  people  shall  serve  thee. 
Christian  princes  well  know  that  to  thee  is  given  all  power  in 
heaven  and  on  earth  !"* 

How  much  Zwingle  wislted  to  have  the  desired  reformation 
wrought  within  the  church,  appears  from  a  Latin  work,  pub- 
lished Avithout  his  name,  in  1520,  entitled.  Counsel  of  a  man 
who  is  sincerely  concerned  for  the  dignity  of  the  Roman  See 
and  the  peace  of  Ohristendoin.  In  this  work  he  says,  "  It 
becomes  a  Christian  to  be  well  inclined  toward  the  vicar  of 
Christ.  On  the  other  hand,  it  behooves  the  papal  paternity  to 
value  no  private  concern  so  highly,  that  he  would  not  gladly 
prefer  to  it  the  honor  of  Christ  and  the  peace  of  Christianity. 
If  any  one  desire  to  promote  the  honor  of  the  pope,  let  him 
do  it  wisely ;  and  this  is  done  when  he  vindicates  it  with 

»  Schuler,  &c.,  p.  262. 


GERMAN   REFORMED    CHURCH.  103 

arguments  that  have  the  silent  approbation  of  pious  and 
upright  men.  No  one  injures  the  papal  dignity  more  than 
the  man  who  would  guard  and  protect  it  by  human  rewards 

and  punishments." "It   is    universally    knoMn    that 

Christians  have  deviated  much,  by  a  gradual  degeneration, 
from  the  doctrine  of  Christ,  and  every  one  must  confess  that 
a  great  and  general  renovation  is  demanded.  As  nothing  is 
to  be  undertaken  rashly,  so  those  who  administer  well-intended 
admonition  must  not  be  inconsiderately  opposed,  though  they 
may  seem  to  do  it  somewhat  rashly."  .  .  .  .  "  For  noble  minds 
must  be  taught,  not  forced :  only  brutes  can  be  forced. 
Those  who  use  compulsion  are  tyrants ;  but  it  behooves  divines, 
above  all  men,  to  instruct  with  meekness,  and  to  treat  of  no 
subject  with  revilings,  or  as  a  partisan."* 

The  same  desire  appears  still  in  another  anonymous  work, 
published  in  1522,  under  the  title,  Aids  to  reflection  on  the 
declarations  of  Adrian  after  his  election  to  the  poyitificate,  for 
the  rulers  of  the  German  nation  assembled  at  Nuremhurg,  by 
one  xoho  heartily  ivishes  ivell  to  Christendom^  and  esijeciaUy  to 
Crermany.  "If  Adrian,"  he  remarks  in  this  work,  "this 
equally  prudent  and  learned  man,  be  favorable  to  the  revival 
of  Christianity,  he  will,  above  all  things,  have  the  pure  gospel 
preached  with  fidelity  and  firmness,  and  will  engage  to  reform 
every  thing  agreeably  to  the  doctrine  of  Christ ;  and  all  who 
have  a  Christian  disposition  will  sustain  the  righteous  under- 
taking." But,  if  Adrian  had  been  all  that  Zwingle  hoped, 
"what,"  says  Schuler,  justly,  "would  have  become  of  this 
reformation  under  such  pontiffs  as  Clement  VII.  and  Paul 
III.?" 

The  bishop  of  Constance,  Hugo  von  Landenberg,  gave  some 
indication  of  a  sincere  desire  to  reform,  at  least,  the  manners 
of  the  clergy  of  his  diocese,  in  a  pastoral  letter  which  he  pub- 
lished in  1517.  In  that  document  he  drew  a  disgusting  picture 
of  many  of  the  sacred  order,  exhorted  them  to  a  reformation 
of  their  lives,  and  threatened  them  with  suspension,  deposition, 

*  Schuler,  &c.,  p.  146. 


104  HISTORY   or   THE 

excommunication,  and  other  punishments,  according  to  the 
measure  of  their  demerit,  if  they  continued  in  their  immoral 
and  dissolute  way  of  living.  Encouraged  by  these  indications, 
Zwingle  entreated  him  to  further  the  unrestricted  preaching 
of  the  gospel,  to  apply  himself  to  the  reformation  of  the  church 
in  her  doctrine  and  worship,  and  to  remove  the  superstitions 
and  abuses  that  prevailed  without  measure.  He  urged  him 
by  his  pastoral  obligation  as  a  bishop,  and,  with  a  sort  of 
prophetic  anticipation,  warned  him  of  the  disorders  that  would 
arise,  if  the  rulers  of  the  church  did  not  apply  the  remedy 
which  the  evil  demanded.  "  The  light,"  said  he,  "is  forcing 
its  way  into  the  darkness ;  the  corruption  of  the  clergy  has 
already  embittered  the  people ;  the  danger  is  near  at  hand ; 
the  dam  will  soon  give  way,  and  who  will  then  force  back  the 
waters  into  their  channel  ?"  But  the  bishop  was  a  weak  man, 
whom  his  courtiers  led  in  leading-strings,  who  promised  much 
and  performed  nothing.  Both  Leo  and  Hugo  wished  only  to 
shine.  Learning  and  liberty  of  thought  they  viewed  as  the 
property  of  rulers ;  the  common  people  they  thought  best  to 
keep  in  ignorance  and  fear ;  and  they  were  inclined  to  con- 
sider the  man  both  impertinent  and  dangerous  who  insisted 
upon  the  duty  of  enlightening  the  multitude  and  maintained 
their  right  to  a  knowledge  of  the  truth.* 

In  this  manner,  Zwingle  was  slowly  and  reluctantly  brought 
to  the  conviction  that  God  was  calling  him,  and  not  the  rulers 
of  the  church,  to  the  office  of  reformer ;  and  that,  to  accom- 
plish any  thing  of  real  importance  and  value,  he  must  go  out 
of  the  communion  of  Rome,  and  call  thence  the  people  of 
God.  And  now  an  event  took  place,  which  exhibited  the  cor- 
ruption of  the  church  in  its  most  disgusting  colors,  and  exposed 
the  fountain  of  the  evil  in  the  profligacy  of  the  pope  himself; 
this  was  the  arrival  of  Sampson,  a  preacher  of  indulgences,  in 
Switzerland. 

It  was  customary  in  the  Christian  church,  at  an  early  period, 
to  impose  certain  expiations  or  satisfactions,  which  were  called 

*  Scliuler,  &c.,  p.  2G3. 


GERMAN   REFORMED    CHURCH.  105 

penances,  upon  cliurcli-members  who  had  committed  gross 
offences,  but  were  now  penitent,  or  professed  to  be  such.  These 
penances  were  imposed  and  submitted  to  as  satisfactions  made 
to  the  church  that  had  been  offended,  and  not  as  satisfactions 
to  God.  They  were,  at  first,  exacted  with  much  rigor ;  but, 
as  early  as  the  fourth  century,  a  right  was  conceded  to  the 
bishops  to  remit  something  of  their  severity,  which  was  called 
dispensation,  or  to  commute  them  for  other  satisfactions ;  and 
by  degrees  the  custom  was  introduced  of  commuting  them  for 
fines  in  money.  The  right  of  dispensation,  or  commutation, 
was  conceded  to  every  bishop  within  his  own  diocese,  and 
nobody  thought  that  the  bishop  of  Rome  possessed  authority 
to  interfere  Avith  its  exercise,  still  less  that  he  could  arrosate 
it  exclusively  to  himself.  Some  of  the  bishops,  indeed,  some- 
times sent  penitents,  who  were  guilty  of  very  heinous  sins,  to 
the  bishop  of  Rojne  for  absolution,  but  this  was  done  only  to 
increase  the  severity  of  the  penance  by  the  expense  and 
fatigue  of  a  distant  journey.  It  is  only  since  the  ninth  cen- 
tury that  the  change  was  introduced  by  which  the  ancient 
releases  from  penance  became  the  later  abomination  of  indul- 
gences. Since  that  time,  it  occurred  to  the  holy  father  in 
Rome,  that  all  penances  to  which  a  sinner  was  become  liable 
might  be  commuted  for  a  participation  in  some  holy  enterprise, 
as  a  war  against  infidels,  or  against  heretics,  the  building  of  a 
church  or  a  convent,  &c.,  or  a  contribution  in  money  for  such 
an  object ;  and  that  remission  might  even  be  granted  for  sins 
not  yet  committed,  indulgentise  ante  factum.  Indulgences 
were  of  two  kinds,  temporary  and  plenary.  The  former  re- 
mitted the  punishments  of  sin  in  this  life,  and  the  latter 
extended  to  the  future  world,  and  remitted  the  punishment 
of  sin  in  purgatory,  or  lessened  its  duration.  The  popes  had  . 
the  sagacity  to  reserve  to  themselves  the  power  of  granting 
the  latter  kind  of  indulgences,  as  it  was  a  copious  source  of 
revenue,  and  a  means  of  making  themselves  the  object  of 
greater  reverence  and  awe  throughout  the  Christian  world ; 
for  nothing  could  be  more  awful  than  the  man  to  whom  God 

14 


106  HISTORY   OP   THE 

had  intrusted  the  keys  of  heaven  and  hell,  and  from  whose 
pleasure  every  man's  eternal  happiness  or  misery  depended. 
Clothed  with  this  authority,  the  pope  sat  in  the  temple  of 
God,  showing  himself  that  he  is  God ;  and  the  Deity  himself, 
with  all  the  host  of  heaven,  stood  in  the  background,  waiting 
to  receive  and  to  execute  his  commands.  As  early  as  the 
ninth  century,  the  pope  John  VIII.  extended  the  efficacy  of 
indulgences  to  the  dead,  by  the  promise  of  heaven  to  all  such 
as  should  fall  in  the  wars  against  the  Saracens.  The  same 
indulgence  was  granted,  in  the  eleventh  and  following  cen- 
turies, to  all  the  living  who  engaged  in  the  crusades  for  the 
recovery  of  the  holy  land  from  the  infidels.  Those  who  took 
part  in  the  war  against  Henry  IV.  of  Germany,  against  the 
Arabs  in  Africa,  or  against  the  Albigenses  in  Italy  and  the 
south  of  France,  were  favored  with  the  same  grace. 

To  give  the  appearance  of  reason  and  authority  to  these 
indulgences,  the  scholastic  divines  invented  the  doctrine  of  a 
treasure  of  merits  in  the  possession  of  the  church,  thesaurus 
meritorum  superabundantium.  This  treasure  consisted  of  the 
superabundant  merit  of  Christ  over  and  above  what  was 
required  for  the  world's  redemption,  and  of  the  saints  over 
and  above  what  was  needed  for  their  own  salvation.  One 
drop  of  Christ's  blood,  as  Cajetan  maintained  in  his  conference 
with  Luther,  was  sufficient  to  atone  for  the  sins  of  all  man- 
kind ;  and  all  the  rest  that  he  shed  was  therefore  left  to  the 
church  as  a  legacy,  from  which  indulgences  might  be  drawn. 
As  to  the  saints,  they  had  exceeded  the  measure  of  good 
works  which  they  were  bound  to  perform,  by  voluntarily  ob- 
serving the  evangelical  counsels,  that  enjoin  fasting,  poverty, 
and  celibacy,  which  the  Holy  Scriptures  do  not  require ;  and 
this  excess  is,  in  like  manner,  left  to  the  disposition  of  the 
church.  "  The  keys  to  this  treasure  were  committed  to  the 
custody  of  St.  Peter  and  his  successors,  the  popes,  who  may 
open  it  at  pleasure ;  and,  by  transferring  a  portion  of  this 
superabundant  merit  to  any  particular  person,  for  a  sum  of 
money,  may  convey  to  him  either  the  pardon  of  his  own  sins, 


GERMAN    REFORMED    CHURCH.  107 

or  a  release  for  any  one  in  whom  he  is  interested,  from  the 
pains  of  purgatory."*  This  doctrine  was  first  propounded 
by  Alexander  of  Hales,  a  Franciscan  monk,  about  the  year 
1230,  yet  only  as  a  conjecture;  but  Albert  the  Great  and 
Thomas  Aquinas  converted  his  conjecture  into  absolute  cer- 
tainty by  their  scholastic  demonstrations.  In  the  hands  of 
the  popes,  who  gave  it  their  solemn  sanction,  it  was  a  most 
excellent  means  of  amassing  treasures,  and  saving  them  from 
the  embarrassments  in  which  their  luxury  and  extravagance 
would  have  involved  them.  At  first,  they  made  Rome  alone 
the  place  where  plenary  indulgences  were  to  be  obtained  ;  and 
all  who  wished  to  have  their  sins  forgiven,  and  themselves 
preserved  from  the  fires  of  purgatory,  were  obliged  to  repair 
to  the  holy  city,  at  whatever  cost  of  time,  fatigue,  and  money 
it  might  be.  At  Rome,  the  superabundant  treasure  of  the 
church  was  divided  among  a  number  of  particular  churches, 
among  which  seven  principal  ones  were  endowed  most  largely 
with  this  precious  gift.  These  churches  were  called  Stationes 
InduJgentiarum,  stations  of  indulgences.  One  of  the  richest 
was  the  church  of  the  Lateran,  on  which  were  bestowed,  at 
its  renewed  consecration,  as  many  days  of  indulgence  as  the 
drops  that  fall  in  a  rain  of  three  days'  and  three  nights'  con- 
tinuance !  The  whole  treasure  of  indulgences  of  the  churches 
in  Rome  was,  therefore,  inexhaustible."}"  It  was  only  when 
the  popes  wanted  money,  and  the  number  of  pilgrims  who 
resorted  to  Rome,  to  obtain  the  forgiveness  of  their  sins,  began 
to  decrease,  that  foreign  archbishops  and  bishops  were  invested 
by  the  pope  with  authority  to  grant  indulgences.  J  Churches, 
also,  and  monasteries  were  endowed  with  this  gift,  and  thus 
became  places  of  favor,  to  which  pilgrims  repaired  in  great 
numbers  to  purchase  their  peace  with  God  by  their  offerings 
and  devotions ;  and  happy,  indeed,  was  the  church  or  the  con- 
vent which  could  boast  of  possessing  such  an  endowment  in 
perpetuity. 


*  Buck's  Theol.  Diet.,  Art.  Indulgences. 

■j-  Encyclopedia  Americana,  Art.  Indulgences.  J  Ibid. 


108  HISTORY   OF   THE 

It  was  a  lucky  thought  of  pope  Boniface  VIII.  to  proclaim 
the  year  thirteen  hundred  as  a  centenary  jubilee,  and  to  pro- 
mise to  all  who  should  in  that  year  visit  the  church  of  St. 
Peter,  in  Home,  with  their  gifts,  during  fifteen  days  if  they 
were  foreigners,  and  thirty  days  if  they  were  citizens,  the 
most  complete  and  perfect  remission  of  sins.  More  than  tzoo 
hundred  thousand  strangers,  from  almost  every  part  of 
Europe,  hastened  to  Home  to  secure  this  great  boon  for  them- 
selves and  their  deceased  friends ;  and  only  the  small  olFerings 
of  the  pilgrims  upon  the  altars  amounted  to  fifUj  thousand 
gold  guilders.  How  much  more  was  the  amount  of  the  large 
gifts  of  the  wealthy  is  not  stated.  This  success  moved  Cle- 
ment VI.,  in  1343,  to  reduce  the  centenary  jubilee  to  one  of 
fifty  years,  and  to  proclaim  the  year  1350  as  the  accepted 
season,  with  all  the  privileges  of  a  centenary ;  and,  to  make 
it  the  more  imposing,  he  commanded  the  angels  to  he  in  readi- 
ness to  conduct  the  souls  that  should  he  provided  luith  indul- 
gences out  of  purgatory  into  heaven.  The  effect  was  prodigious. 
The  number  of  pilgrims  who  crowded  into  Home  is  estimated 
at  from  a  million  to  tivelve  hundred  thousand.  These  Avere 
not  a  mere  rabble,  but  persons  of  every  description  and  grade, 
from  the  beggar  to  the  king ;  and  every  one  who  had  a  mite 
to  bestow  brought  his  gift  to  the  altar,  in  exchange  for  his 
soul  and  the  souls  of  departed  friends.  The  treasures  that 
were  gathered  during  this  great  festival  must  have  been  im- 
mense ;  and  the  more,  because  the  people  were  taught,  and 
religiously  believed,  that  the  indulgences  which  were  granted 
during  the  jubilee  possessed  twofold  the  value  which  they 
would  have  at  any  other  time.  The  years  1400  and  1450 
were  again  so  richly  productive,  that  Paul  II.,  in  1470, 
resolved  to  have  a  jubilee  once  in  every  twenty-five  years,  and 
proclaimed  the  year  1475  as  the  great  year  of  salvation,  to 
which  both  the  living  and  the  dead  should  look  for  deliverance 
from  sin,  and  from  the  torments  of  purgatory,  when  one  pater 
noster  should  be  worth  as  much  as  two,  and  one  guilder  offered 
upon  the  altar  should  possess  twice  its  usual  value  ! 

But  the  sovereign  pontiffs,  into  whose  lap  these  copious 


GERMAN   REFORMED   CHURCH.  109 

streams  of  wealth  flowed  only  four  times  in  a  century,  had 
need  of  more  money  than  this  expedient  brought  them.     To 
reduce  the  jubilee  to  a  shorter  period  still,  would  have  destroyed 
its  charm,  and  defeated  their  end ;   and  they  were,  therefore, 
compelled  to  contrive  other  ways  and  means  to  replenish  their 
empty  coffers.     Their  pressing  wants  were  not  supplied  by 
their  part  of  the  profits  derived  from  the  sale  of  indulgences 
by  foreign  bishops  and  archbishops,  nor  by  their  portion  of 
the  offerings  of  pilgrims  to  endowed  monasteries  and  churches, 
nor  by  the  annates,  and  tithes,  and  peter-pence,  and  the  hun- 
dreds of  other  impositions  upon  the  clergy  or  the  people  of 
Christendom.    But,  as  those  who  resorted  to  Rome  to  purchase 
the  pardon  of  their  sins,  even  in  the  year  of  jubilee,  vast  as 
their  number  might  be,  were  still  but  a  very  small  part  of  the 
population  of  the  Christian  world,  the  great  body  of  the  people, 
who  chose  to  remain  at  home,  contributed  nothing  in  that  way 
to  the  papal  treasury.    To  reach  them  also,  and  to  bring  them 
under  the  same  kind  of  contribution,  the  holy  father  resolved 
to  send  his  agents  abroad,  who  should  carry  his  indulgences 
to  every  man's  door,  and  made  them  so  cheap  that  few  were 
too  poor  to  buy  them.     Alexander  VI.  sent  Cardinal  Eay- 
mond,  in  the  year  1500,  on  such  a  mission  into  Grermany^ 
Denmarh,  Siveden,  and  Prussia.     Julius  II.  despatched  his 
agents  on  the  same  errand  in  five  successive  years,  from  1504 
to  1508,  inclusive.     Leo  X.  followed  the  example  of  his  pre- 
decessors.    Wherever  this  holy  missionary  came,  he  erected  a 
red  cross  in  one  of  the  churches,  as  the  sign  of  his  office,  which, 
he  alleged,  was  equally  efficacious  with  the  cross  upon  which 
the  Saviour  suffered.     He  caused  his  arrival  and  his  business, 
and  the  time  of  his  stay,  to  be  announced  from  the  pulpits, 
and  then  applied  himself  to  the  sale  of  his  ghostly  wares. 
With  the  loquacity  and  the  impudence  of  a  mountebank,  he 
proclaimed  the   all-powerful  and   certain  effect  of  his  indul- 
gences for  the  living  and  the  dead,  however  enormous  their 
sins  might  be,  and  urged  the  hearers  to  come  and  secure  the 
remission  of  sins  for  themselves  and  their  deceased  friends  in 
purgatory,  while  they  had  the  opportunity,  and   the   holy 
K 


110  HISTORY   OF  THE 

father,  in  the  plenitude  of  his  goodness,  was  condescending 
to  open  the  treasure  of  the  church  for  the  benefit  of  poor  souls. 
No  repentance  or  amendment  was  required,  if  indulgences 
were  bought.  Every  sin  had  its  price,  which  was  so  moderate 
that  a  sinner  might  be  a  very  demon  in  wickedness,  and  yet 
go  to  heaven  for  as  much  money  as  he  might  squander  upon 
the  pleasures  of  a  single  day.*  To  put  a  more  decent  appear- 
ance upon  this  traffic,  a  pious  object,  or  one  which  was  so 
esteemed,  was  always  pretended.  This  was  a  Avar  against 
the  Turks,  who  were  then  the  terror  of  the  Christian  nations, 
or  the  building  of  churches,  or  some  similar  object,  to  which 
it  was  alleged  that  the  money  would  be  applied. 

Leo  X.,  than  whom  a  greater  spendthrift  never  sat  upon 
the  papal  throne,  was  incessantly  pressed  for  ways  and  means 
to  support  his  reckless  extravagance.  To  supply  his  numerous 
wants,  he  was  willing,  like  his  merciful  predecessors,  to  use 
the  power  of  the  keys,  not  only  to  remit  to  sinners  the  pen- 
ances which  the  church  imposed  for  their  ofiences,  but  to  open 
the  gates  of  purgatory,  and  to  let  as  many  of  the  suffering 
souls  escape  from  its  torment  as  their  friends  on  earth  were 
willing  to  redeem,  by  paying  a  small  sum  of  money  for  so 
great  a  favor.  The  people  were  taught,  that  the  money, 
which  they  were  required  to  pay  for  this  indulgence,  was  to 
be  applied  to  the  completion  of  the  church  of  St.  Peter  in 
Rome,  which  his  predecessor  had  begun ;  a  most  magnificent 
edifice,  that  was  worthy  of  the  prince  of  the  apostles,  and  of 
the  seat  of  his  empire,  and  would  secure  his  special  favor  to 
the  pious  contributors.  These  indulgences,  the  efficacy  of 
which  it  would  be  impious  to  doubt,  by  which  the  living  would 
be  made  sure  of  heaven,  and  so  many  souls  would  be  delivered 
from  the  intolerable  pains  of  purgatory,  and  on  such  easy 
terms  withal,  ought  to  be  accepted  by  all,  it  was  urged,  with 

*  A  specimen  of  "the  tax  of  the  sacred  Roman  Chancery,"  in  which  are 
contained  the  exact  sums  to  be  levied  for  the  pardon  of  each  particular  sin, 
may  be  seen  in  Buck's  Theological  Dictionary,  Art.  Indulgences.  Repent- 
ance was,  indeed,  nominally  required  by  the  papal  authority,  but  was  prac- 
tically dispensed  with  by  the  agents  and  preachers  of  indulgences. 


GERMAN   REFORMED    CHURCH.  Ill 

devout  gratitude,  as  a  most  wonderful  instance  of  papal 
benignity. 

Such  were  the  representations  made  by  the  authorized 
preachers  of  indulgences.  On  such  a  mission,  and  with  such 
a  message  in  his  mouth,  Tetzel  was  sent  into  G-ermamj,  and 
Sampson  into  Sivitzerland.  Tetzel  met  with  great  success 
wherever  he  presented  himself,  and  grew  bolder  and  bolder 
still  as  he  went  onward,  until  Luther  rose  up,  full  of  holy 
indignation,  and  put  a  stop  to  this  impious  mockery  of  religion, 
by  striking  a  blow  that  broke  the  spell,  and  eventuated  in  the 
Reformation,  at  the  head  of  which  it  was  the  pleasure  of  God 
to  place  him.  Sampson  was  not  behind  his  fellow,  either  in 
impiety  or  in  impudence.  He  crossed  mount  St.  Crotliard  into 
Switzerland  in  August,  1518,  and  took  up  his  abode  in  the 
canton  of  Uri,  whence  he  soon  moved  into  the  canton  of 
Schweitz  and  the  neighborhood  of  Einsiedehi.  Wherever  he 
came,  he  first  gained  over,  by  flatteries  and  bribes,  some  men 
of  credit  and  influence,  and  then,  strengthened  by  their  coun- 
tenance and  co-operation,  proclaimed  the  object  of  his  mission, 
and  the  power  of  his  indulgences,  with  the  utmost  pomp  and 
display.  "I  can  forgive  all  sins,"  said  he,  "past  and  future. 
As  soon  as  the  money  tinkles  in  my  box,  the  sinner  is  pardoned. 
No  crime  is  so  shocking  that  it  may  not  be  forgiven.  Heaven 
and  hell  are  at  my  disposal,  by  virtue  of  the  trust  committed 
to  me  by  the  pope,  and  I  can  now  deliver  souls  from  purga- 
tory. All  the  merits  of  Christ  and  of  the  saints  are  in  my 
power,  to  be  communicated  to  those  who  will  buy  an  indul- 
gence." Tetzel's  associate  in  Germany  declared  that  he  saw 
the  Saviour's  blood  streaming  fresh  from  his  cross,  as  it  once 
flowed  on  Calvary,  to  blot  out  the  sins  of  those  who  were  buy- 
ing indulgences;  and  ^dim'^ion^'m Switzerland^  beheld  the  souls 
of  the  dead  arise,  and  fly  in  crowds  to  heaven,  when  their 
release  from  purgatory  had  been  purchased  ! 

Here  Zwingle  saw,  in  the  strongest  light,  the  diff"erence 
between  the  doctrine  of  the  church  and  of  the  pope,  on  the 
one  hand,  and  the  doctrine  of  Jesus  Christ,  on  the  other. 
The  contrast  was  perfect :  they  differed  as  light  and  darkness, 


112  HISTORY   OP   THE 

and  it  was  impossible  that  both  should  subsist  together.  All 
his  soul  revolted  against  the  daring  violation  of  every  prin- 
ciiDle  of  religion  and  morality,  Avhich  he  saw  committed,  with 
shameless  eifrontery,  in  the  awful  name  of  God,  by  the  agents 
of  the  chief  whom  he  had  been  used  to  call  the  holy  father, 
and  to  reverence  as  the  vicegerent  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 
His  zeal  burned  Avithin  him  for  a  reformation  of  religion,  and 
he  was  now  taught  that  nothing  was  to  be  expected  from  the 
pope,  who  thus  prostituted  his  sacred  office  to  the  basest  and 
most  impious  abuses.  Things  had  arrived  at  such  a  pass,  that, 
as  Capito  said  to  the  bishop  of  Basil,  "  It  seemed  to  be  very 
much  the  same  whether  men  denied  God,  or  entertained  such 
thoughts  of  him."* 

In  Mnsiedeln,  Zwingle  now  raised  his  voice  against  indul- 
gences, as  an  abuse  that  sapped  the  foundations  of  all  religion 
and  virtue,  warned  the  people  against  the  knave  and  impostor 
who  was  deceiving  them,  and  directed  them  to  the  free  grace 
of  God  in  Christ,  for  the  pardon  of  their  sins  and  the  peace 
of  their  souls.  These  Avarnings  he  uttered  in  all  the  warmth 
of  his  indignation,  and  in  all  the  vehemence  of  an  impassioned 
eloquence  :  yet  no  one  resented  his  bold  denunciations.  Samp- 
son himself,  abandoned  by  his  supporters,  withdrew,  and 
erected  his  cross  in  the  city  of  Bern,  where  there  was,  at  this 
time,  less  to  be  feared.  These  things  occurred  at  the  very 
time  when  the  papal  legate  was  opening  to  Zwingle  the  most 
alluring  prospects  of  preferment,  and  pressed  upon  his  con- 
tinued acceptance  the  pension  which  the  latter  had  offered  to 
resign  :  and,  indeed,  it  was  after  this  that  cardinal  Pucci 
conferred  on  him  the  honorary  title  of  chaplain  to  the  pope. 


*  Sclmler,  &c.,  p.  275. 


BOOK  II. 


CHAPTER  I. 

REFORMATION  OF  THE  CITY  AND   CANTON  OF   ZURICH,   FROM  1519   TO   1525, 

INCLUSIVE. 

From  Einsiedeln,  Zwinglc's  ministry  was  transferred  to 
Zurich,  the  capital  of  the  canton  of  the  same  name.  Zurich, 
though  much  inferior  to  Bern  in  territorial  extent,  held  the 
first  rank  among  the  thirteen  cantons.  Its  capital,  situated 
on  the  Limmat,  where  it  issues  from  the  lake  of  Zurich,  con- 
tains about  fourteen  thousand  inhabitants.  The  whole  popu- 
lation of  the  canton  is  about  224,000.  It  was  an  aristo- 
democratic  republic.  Its  government  was  administered  bj  a 
greater  and  a  lesser  council,  at  the  head  of  which  were  the 
two  burgomasters.  The  citizens  of  each  several  profession  or 
trade  formed  a  corporation,  or  zunft;  and  in  these  bodies 
was  vested  the  right  of  election. 

At  the  time  when  Zwingle  was  called  to  minister  in  the  capi- 
tal of  this  canton,  a  purer  patriotism  prevailed  than  had  pre- 
ceded it,  and  the  government  was  administered  by  a  wise  and 
magnanimous  council.  The  city  possessed  rich  ecclesiastical 
endowments,  that  were  originally  designed  as  foundations  for 
the  improvement  of  learning,  as  well  as  the  culture  of  piety. 
A  taste  for  science  had  begun  to  appear,  and  wealthy  families 
were  sending  their  sons  to  universities  abroad  for  a  learned 
education.  A  respectable  academy,  under  the  direction  of 
Oswald  Myconius,  was  attached  to  the  cathedral  church,  or 
great-minster ;  the  study  of  the  ancient  classics  was  reviving ; 
the  writings  of  Erasmus,  and  other  distinguished  men,  were 
waking  up  a  new  spirit  in  the  reading  community ;  and  the 
fame  of  Zwingle,  which  was  already  spread  over  Stvitzerland 
k2  15  113 


114  HISTORY   OF  THE 

and  the  neighboring  countries,  had  exerted  a  happy  influence 
here.  All  these  circumstances  were  favorable  to  the  design 
of  the  reformer,  and  were  preparing  the  ground  for  the  seed 
of  the  divine  word.* 

The  Great-Minster  in  Zurich  was  built  upon  the  blood  of 
martyrs.  About  the  close  of  the  third  century,  Felix  and 
Regula,  of  the  Theban  legion,  came  into  the  regions  of  Glarus 
and  Zurich,  and  suffered  martyrdom,  as  the  first  publishers 
of  Christianity  among  the  fierce  inhabitants.  Tradition  pre- 
served the  history  of  this  event,  and  the  church,  which  was 
built  upon  the  spot  that  was  consecrated  by  their  blood,  was 
dedicated  to  their  memory.f  About  the  close  of  the  eighth 
century,  Charlemagne  founded  in  this  church  a  chapter  of 
canons,  in  honor  of  the  martyrs,  who  now  bore  the  title  of 
Saint  Felix  and  Regula,  with  a  liberal  endowment,  which 
succeeding  princes  enlarged  by  new  donations.  His  intention 
was,  that  the  canons  should  constitute  a  society  for  the  culture 
and  diffusion  of  useful  learning,  and  should,  at  the  same  time, 
successively  perform  the  ordinary  religious  ministrations  to 
the  people  who  worshipped  in  the  minster.  But,  after  the 
founder's  death,  nobody  cared  about  his  object,  or  the  right- 
ful destination  of  the  fund.  The  canons  made  their  office  a 
convenient  sinecure,  and  were  content  to  enjoy  its  rich  reve- 
nues without  any  other  labor  than  that  of  management  and 
collection.  In  the  latter  part  of  the  twelfth  century,  the 
parishioners  obtained  from  the  duke  of  Zahringen,  who  then 
possessed  the  sovereignty  of  the  country,  a  separate  provision 
for  a  pastor.  He  was  to  be  chosen  out  of  the  chapter,  and, 
with  the  aid  of  two  deacons,  or  assistants,  whom  he  was  au- 
thorized to  choose,  was  required  to  perform  the  labor  of 
preaching  and  the  care  of  souls.  But,  although  he  might 
devolve  the  principal  burden  upon  his  assistants,  such  was  the 
idea  then  entertained  of  the  pastoral  office  by  these  canons, 
and  such  the  love  of  a  dignified  idleness,  that  this  ministry 


*  Schuler,  &c.,  p.  291. 

I  J.  F.  Moeller  im  Reformations- Almanacli  fur  1819,  p.  5. 


GERMAN   REFORMED    CHURCH.  115 

was  considered  too  onerous  to  be  borne  by  one  of  themselves* 
The  chapter,  therefore,  elected  a  priest,  who  was  not  a  mem- 
ber of  their  body,  to  this  laborious  and  irksome  office ;  and, 
either  because  they  thought  the  labor  too  much  to  be  always 
borne  by  any  ecclesiastic,  or  because  they  imagined  that  their 
own  dignity  obliged  them  to  release  him  from  his  burden 
after  a  short  period,  it  was  their  custom  to  elect  him  a  mem- 
ber of  the  chapter  at  the  end  of  some  years,  upon  which  he 
retired  from  all  active  employments,  and  spent  the  rest  of  his 
life  in  a  dignified  ease  and  affluence.  Zwingle's  predecessors 
in  this  office  were  Conrad  Hoffman,  who  retired  about  the 
close  of  the  year  1514,  and  Erhard  Battman,  who  had  recently 
been  elected  to  the  canonry.  The  former  is  described  as  an 
honest  man,  who  inveighed  with  vehemence  against  the  pre- 
valent vices,  and  even  censured  the  abuses  committed  by  the 
pope  and  the  prelates  of  the  church,  but  was,  nevertheless,  a 
zealous  Papist.  Of  Battman,  little  is  known  beside  an  exces- 
sive superstition.* 

Zwingle  was  elected  to  this  office  in  December,  1518,  and 
without  hesitation  accepted  it,  regarding  Zurich  as  of  all 
others  the  most  favorable  situation  for  his  great  design.  By 
his  influence,  his  friend  Leo  Juda  was  called  to  succeed  him 
at  Einsiedeln.  Having  thus  provided  for  the  edification  of 
his  flock,  he  removed  to  his  new  field  of  labor  on  the  27th  of 
December,  and,  on  the  first  day  of  January,  1519,  began  his 
eventful  ministry  in  this  place. 

The  terms  that  were  exacted  from  the  preacher  of  the 
great-minster,  agreeably  to  established  custom,  by  the  provost 
of  the  chapter,  will  throw  some  further  light  upon  the  charac- 
ter of  the  clergy,  and  the  state  of  religion  at  that  time.  It 
was  most  strenuously  enjoined  that  he  should  be  attentive  to 
the  collection  of  the  revenues  of  the  institution,  and  remit 
nothing,  even  of  the  smallest  amount ;  that,  both  in  the  pulpit 
and  in  the  confessional,  he  should  inculcate  the  duty  of  pay- 
ing tithes  and  other  dues,  and  making  presents  to  the  church; 

*  Schuler,  &c.,  p.  291,  &c. 


116  HISTORY  OF  THE 

and  that  he  should  charge  himself  with  the  care  and  improTe- 
ment  of  the  revenues.  Beside  this,  the  statutes  required,  in- 
deed, that  he  should  preach  and  preside  over  public  worship 
and  the  administration  of  the  sacraments.  But  these  parts 
of  his  office  he  was  permitted  to  leave  to  his  assistants,  espe- 
cially the  duty  of  preaching,  which  was  evidently  viewed  as 
that  part  to  which  the  least  importance  belonged.  With 
regard  to  the  sacraments,  he  was  required  to  administer  them 
in  person  only  to  people  of  rank,  and  only  when  particularly 
requested  to  do  so ;  and  he  was  forbidden  to  do  the  same  for 
all.  The  office  of  the  principal  pastor  of  the  first  church  in 
Zurich  was  thus  converted  into  a  mere  agency  for  the  love 
of  earthly  lucre  and  self-indulgence,  while  the  wretched  flocks 
over  Avhich  these  faithless  shepherds  ought  to  have  watched 
with  affectionate  concern,  were  left  to  take  care  of  themselves 
in  the  best  way  they  could.  Yet  this  institution  was  one  of 
those  which  were  in  the  best  repute  !  What,  then,  must  have 
been  the  character  of  the  rest  ?  And  how  awfully  wretched 
must  the  state  of  religion  have  been  throughout  the  whole 
church  !* 

How  Zwingle  got  over  these  statutes,  at  his  induction  into 
office,  we  are  not  informed ;  but  it  is  certain  that,  in  his  min- 
istry, his  first  attention  was  given  where  the  law  of  God 
required  it ;  and  we  may  infer  that  he  gave  to  other  matters 
just  as  much  as  they  deserved,  and  no  more.f  Before  he 
entered  upon  the  duties  of  his  office,  he  communicated  to  the 


*  Schuler,  &c-,  p-  308,  &c. 

■j-  It  is  hardly  jjrobable  that  these  impious  terms  were  even  proposed  to 
Zwingle  at  his  induction.  His  character  was  not  unknown  in  Zurich,  and 
those  who  knew  him  would  certainly  not  expect  him  to  subscribe  such  a 
capitulation.  The  fact,  indeed,  that  he  was  elected  affords  a  presumption 
that  a  majority  of  the  canons  had  already  adopted  more  rational  sentiments 
than  had  foi-merly  characterized  the  chapter ;  and  this  presumption  is 
strengthened  by  the  fact,  that  most  of  those  who  voted  for  Zwingle  readily 
approved  his  new  plan  of  preaching,  and,  what  is  still  more,  listened  with 
pleasure  to  his  instructions.  If  such  a  change  had  taken  place,  we  must 
refer  it  to  the  overruling  providence  of  God,  which  was  everywhere  waking 
up  a  slumbering  world. 


GERMAN   REFORMED    CHURCH.  117 

chapter  the  plan  which  he  purposed  to  pursue.  He  informed 
them  that  he  would  not  confine  himself  in  his  preaching,  as 
the  long-established  custom  was,  to  the  pericopes  or  sections 
of  the  sacred  text  which  were  appointed  for  each  day,  but 
would  expound  the  word  of  God  continuously,  through  an 
entire  book ;  and  he  would  begin  with  the  gospel  of  Matthew, 
where  he  would  set  forth  the  life  and  character  of  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  and  the  doctrine  which  he  taught.  This  purpose 
was  approved  by  the  majority ;  but  some  of  the  members  ob- 
jected to  it  as  an  innovation,  which  might  lead  to  others,  and 
would  unsettle  the  people's  attachment  to  the  ancient  customs, 
in  which  they  were  unwilling  that  any  thing  should  be  changed. 
Zwingle,  nevertheless,  persisted  in  his  determination,  after 
showing  that  the  pericopes  were  no  older  than  the  time  of 
Charlemagne,  while  the  plan  which  he  designed  to  pursue 
was  that  of  the  ancient  fathers  of  the  chm-ch.  This  plan 
enabled  him  to  present  to  his  hearers  many  important  truths, 
as  they  came  in  his  way  in  the  course  of  a  continuous  exposi- 
tion, without  appearing  to  be  sought  by  the  preacher,  and 
without  seeming  like  wilful  attacks  upon  time-hallowed  opinions 
and  usages.  It  was  the  evangelist  himself  that  led  him,  step 
by  step,  in  exposing  the  deviations  of  the  established  religion 
from  the  Holy  Scripture ;  and  at  every  step  it  was  seen  that 
he  was  sustained  in  what  he  said  by  an  authority  to  which 
they  were  constrained  to  submit.  From  the  gospel  of  Mat- 
thew he  proceeded  to  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  in  the  exposi- 
tion of  which  he  could  acquaint  his  hearers  with  the  history 
of  the  early  propagation  of  Christianity,  the  preaching  of  the 
apostles,  the  doctrine  which  they  taught,  the  origin  of  particu- 
lar churches,  the  constitution  of  the  church  and  her  ministry, 
and  the  lives  of  the  primitive  Christians.  Next  he  conducted 
them  through  the  first  epistle  of  Paul  to  Timothy,  where  he 
could  dwell  upon  the  nature  and  design  of  the  gospel,  the 
character  and  duty  of  its  ministers,  the  discipline  and  order 
of  the  church,  the  duty  of  Christians,  the  oneness  of  the  medi- 
ator between  God  and  man,  &c.  From  this  epistle  he  went  to 
the  doctrines  of  faith  and  of  Christian  liberty,  as  they  are 


118  HISTORY   OF  THE 

taught  in  the  epistle  to  the  Galatians ;  then  to  the  description 
of  an  evangelical  pastor  in  the  second  epistle  to  Timothy ; 
and  after  this,  he  took  up  the  epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  in  his 
exposition  of  which  he  refuted  the  popish  notion  of  a  sacrifice 
of  Christ  in  the  mass,  and  showed  what  was  the  true  sacrifice 
for  sins.    In  this  manner  he  proceeded  until  he  had  completed 
the  exposition  of  the  books  of  the  New  Testament,  and  then 
took  up  parts  of  the  Old  Testament  in  the  same  way.     His 
lucid  exhibitions  of  truth,  the  novelty  of  his  instructions,  his 
fervid  eloquence,  the  knowledge  which  he  imparted,  and  the 
warmth  which  he  kindled  at  the  heart,  drew  to  his  ministry 
crowds  of  attentive  hearers ;  and  such  was  the  efiect  of  his 
preaching,  that,  before  the  end  of  the  year,  more  than  two 
thousand  converts  to  his  doctrines  were  found  in  the  city  and 
its  vicinity.      But  his   success  was   not  without  opposition. 
The  same  preaching  that  melted  one,  hardened  another,  and 
the  grateful  kindness  that  met  him  on  one  side,  was  balanced 
by  the  bitter  animosity  which  assailed  him  on  the  other :   and 
to  the  end  of  his  life  there  was  a  conflict  with  enemies,  open 
or  secret,  who  did  not  sufi'er  him  to  be  without  embarrassing 
occupation,  or  to  have  the  pleasure  of  success  without  alloy.* 
About  this  time,  and  while  Zwingle  was  yet  in  Einsiedcln, 
the  first  of  Luther's  writings  began  to  be  known  in  Switzer- 
land.    They  were  republished  and  extensively  circulated  by 
Frobenius,  a  bookseller  in  Basel,  and  were  read  by  multitudes 
with  great  avidity.     Zwingle,  acquainted  by  report  with  the 
nature  of  their  contents,  recommended  them  from  the  pulpit, 
both  before  and  after  his  settlement  in  Zurich,  but  did  not 
read  them,  lest  it  might  seem  that  he   had  borrowed  from 
-  Luther  any  thing  which  the    Bible  itself   had    taught  him. 
Li  the  mean  time,  they  co-operated  with  his  own  exertions, 
especially  in  his  attack  upon  the  traffic  in  indulgences.f     He 
never  opened  a  correspondence  with  Luther ;  and  the  reason 
which  he  gives  for  the  omission  was,  that  he  wished  to  let  all 

*  Schuler,  &c.,  p.  809-12,  325,  &c. 

f  Schroeck's  Kirch.  Gescli.,  &c.,  vol.  ii.  p.  111.     Gieseler's   Lehrb.,  &c., 
p.  140,  and  notes. 


GERMAN   REFORMED    CHURCH.  119 

men  see  how  uniform  the  Spirit  of  God  Avas  in  his  teaching, 
since,  notwithstanding  their  remoteness  from  one  another,  and 
the  absence  of  all  previous  concert,  they  still  taught  one  and 
the  same  doctrine.*  Of  Luther  he  entertained  a  very  exalted 
opinion,  and  spoke  in  the  highest  terms  of  approbation.  In 
the  explanation  of  his  theses,  published  in  1523,  he  says : 
"  In  my  opinion,  Luther  is  as  excellent  a  soldier  of  God,  and 
investigates  the  Scriptures  with  as  much  earnestness  as  any 
one  on  earth  within  a  thousand  years.  Without  disparagement 
to  others,  I  may  say,  that,  since  the  papacy  exists,  none  has 
attacked  the  pope  of  Rome  with  the  same  manly  and  unshaken 
courage.  He  brings  out  richly  what  is  contained  in  the 
eternal  and  immutable  word  of  God,  and  shows  the  heavenly 
treasure  to  the  poor  Christian,  and  does  not  care  what  the 
enemies  of  God  undertake  against  it,  neither  is  he  concerned 
about  their  anger  or  their  threats.  I  have  designedly  read 
but  little ;  but  what  I  have  read,  so  far  as  it  respects  the  doc- 
trine, meaning,  and  sense  of  the  Scriptures,  is  usually  so  con- 
siderate, and  so  well-grounded,  that  it  is  impossible  to  refute 
it.  In  some  things  he  gives  way  too  much  to  the  weak,  in 
which  I  am  not  of  his  opinion.  When  Luther  preaches  Christ, 
he  does  it  just  as  I  do  it ;  though,  God  be  praised,  an  innu- 
merably greater  multitude  is  led  to  God  by  him  than  by  me ; 
God  giving  to  each  his  measure,  greater  or  less."t 

Soon  after  the  commencement  of  Zwingle's  ministry  in 
ZuricJi,  Sampson,  who  had,  in  the  mean  time,  prosecuted  his 
mission  with  great  success  in  the  cantons  of  Zug,  Luzerii, 
Unterwalden,  and  Bern,  came  there  also  to  offer  his  precious 
ware  in  that  city  and  canton.  He  had  succeeded  so  well  in 
Bern,  that,  when  all  who  could  afford  to  buy  indulgences  had 
bought  them,  and  none  but  the  poor  remained  unpardoned 
and  unprepared  for  heaven,  he  resolved  before  his  departure 
to  give  to  the  inhabitants  a  proof  of  his  love,  by  helping  those 
who  could  not  help  themselves.  Accordingly,  he  first  granted 
plenary  indulgence  to  every  one  that  fell  upon  his  knees  and 

*  Schroeck's  Kircli.  Gescb.,  vol.  i.  p.  35G-7.  f  IbiJ.  p.  357. 


120  HISTORY    OF   THE 

said  a  Patcr-noster  ami  an  Ave  Maria  !  To  make  his  benignity 
more  illustrious,  lie  next  granted  to  every  one  who  compassed 
the  church  three  times,  reciting  his  prayers,  the  privilege  of 
liberating  from  purgatory  any  soul  that  he  might  name ! 
Finally,  to  overwhelm  the  good  people  of  Bern  with  a  profu- 
sion of  kindness,  he  promised  that  every  Bernese  soul,  where- 
ever  and  whenever  it  had  left  the  Avorld,  should  be  delivered 
from  purgatory,  if  the  wdiole  assembly  would  unitedly  say  five 
Pater-nosters  and  five  Ave  Marias !  When  they  had  done 
so,  he  exclaimed,  in  a  loud  voice,  "  Now,  this  moment,  all 
Bernese  souls  have  flown  together  out  of  the  hellish  pains  of 
purgatory  into  the  joys  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven  !"* 

This  audacious  knave  did  not  find  the  same  acceptance  in 
ZurieJi.  He  had  neglected  to  exhibit  his  credentials  to  the 
bishop  of  the  diocese,  and  to  have  them  attested  by  his  Vidi- 
mus. The  bishop  resented  this  contemptuous  neglect  by  for- 
bidding the  sale  of  indulgences  within  his  jurisdiction,  and  the 
opening  of  the  churches  for  the  monk's  accommodation ;  and 
he  even  sent  an  ambassador  to  the  diet,  which  was  then  assem- 
bled in  Zurich,  to  request  them  to  interpose  their  influence, 
and  prevent  his  being  admitted  into  the  city.  For  this  there 
was,  perhaps,  no  necessity.  The  council  had  heard  of  the 
scandalous  proceedings  of  Sampson,  and  being  urged  by  the 
representations  of  the  reformer,  they  forbade  his  entrance 
into  Zurich,  but,  out  of  respect  to  the  pope,  they  entertained 
him  without  the  walls,  and  dismissed  him.  At  the  same  time, 
they  addressed  themselves  to  the  pope  with  complaints  of  the 
gross  abuse  of  indulgences  by  his  reckless  agent,  and  requested 
his  recall  and  punishment.  Leo  replied,  about  the  close  of 
the  month  of  April,  in  a  missive,  addressed  to  all  the  cantons, 
in  which  he  says,  "  They  had  applied  to  him  for  a  decision,  in 
order  that  they  might  obey  his  commands,  concerning  certain 
doubts  that  might  be  injm'ious  to  their  souls,  which  had  arisen 
between  some  monks,  respecting  the  indulgences  which  he  had 


*  Anselm's  Berner  Chronik,  vol.  v.   p.  335,  in  Gieseler's  Lelirbuch   der 
Kircli.  Gesch. 


GEKMAN   REFORMED    CHURCH.  121 

proclaimed.  But  ho  had  already  taken  occasion,  from  a  simi- 
lar controversy  in  Germany,  to  Avrite  to  his  legate  there, 
cardinal  Cajetan,  and  to  say  to  him,  that,  agreeably  to  the 
decision  of  the  church,  which  must  be  obeyed,  under  the 
penalty  of  an  excommunication  which  none  but  the  pope  can 
remove  in  the  hour  of  death,  the  authority  of  the  pope  to  grant 
such  indulgences  was  unquestionable.  They  should,  therefore, 
give  no  heed  to  such  controversies,  but  adhere  firmly  to  the 
prescriptions  of  the  holy  see,  which  could  not  err.  He  had, 
nevertheless,  at  their  solicitation,  recalled  the  monk  of  whom 
they  complained,  and  would  punish  him,  if  he  Avere  found 
guilty."*  Zwingle  was  induced  by  these  occurrences  to  renew 
his  earnest  appeals  to  the  prelates  of  the  church  for  the  re- 
moval of  the  abuses  that  equally  oppressed  and  disgraced  her ; 
but  he  appealed  in  vain.  The  rulers  of  the  church  had  no 
heart  for  such  things,  while  they  saw  their  interest  in  the 
continuance  of  the  prevailing  disorder,  f 

In  consequence  of  the  reformer's  increasing  boldness  in 
exposing  the  corruptions  of  the  church,  one  of  the  monks  went 
to  Basel,  for  the  purpose  of  there  publishing  four  sermons 
against  him,  on  the  subject  of  image-worship,  which,  however, 
his  friends  in  that  city  were  able  so  to  counteract,  that  the 
printing  was  interdicted  by  the  bishop  and  the  council.  But 
in  the  following  year,  1520,  several  of  the  canons  drew  up  a 
complaint,  in  which  they  enumerated  twenty-one  articles, 
gathered  from  his  sermons  and  conversations,  for  which  they 
demanded  that  he  should  be  publicly  reproved ;  and  the  provost 
of  the  chapter,  also,  Felix  Frey,  put  into  his  hands  a  lengthy 
remonstrance  of  similar  import.  Zwingle  replied  verbally  to 
the  provost,  and  begged  him  to  spare  him  in  future  the  pains 
of  attending  to  complaints  that  were  sustained  by  such  futile  • 
grounds.  The  complaint  of  the  canons,  instead  of  arresting, 
accelerated  the  progress  of  his  reformation.     Ilis  preaching, 


*  Sclirocck's  Kirch.  Gesch.,  vol.  ii.  p.  113.     J.  J.  Hettinger's  Historic  der 
Ref.  in  der  Eidgenossenschaft,  p.  41,  &c. 

f  Voegelin's  Jahrtafel  zu  Zwinglis  Leben,  p.  20. 
L  16 


122  HISTORY   OF   THE 

during  the  year,  had  made  such  an  impression  upon  the  coun- 
cil, that  they  commanded,  by  a  public  decree,  "  That  all  the 
clergy  within  their  territories  should  preach  the  holy  gospels 
and  the  epistles  of  the  apostles,  freely  and  without  hinderance, 
in  conformity  with  the  Spirit  of  God  and  the  Holy  Scriptures  ; 
that  they  should  teach  nothing  Avhich  they  could  not  prove  by 
the  Scriptures,  and  should  abstain  from  later  additions  and 
commandments  of  men."* 

The  authenticity  of  this  decree  rests  chiefly  upon  the  author- 
ity of  Bullinger,  in  his  history  of  the  Swiss  reformation.  It 
is  questioned  by  Yoegelin,  in  his  JaJirtafel  zu  ZunngWs 
Lehen,  whose  grounds  are,  that  it  is  improbable  that  the  coun- 
cil, who  were  so  tardy  in  other  respects,  should  act  so  deci- 
sively at  so  early  a  period  in  this  case  ;  that  there  is  no  original 
record  of  the  fact  in  the  archives  of  Zurich  ;  and  that,  as  such 
a  decree  was  published  in  1523,  and  was  therefore  still  wanted 
at  that  time,  it  is  improbable  that  a  similar  one  had  been 
published  in  1520.  These  grounds,  however,  are  not  decisive. 
The  decree  in  question  is  alluded  to  in  the  answer  of  the  coun- 
cil of  Zurich  to  the  complaint  of  the  Papist  cantons,  in  1524, 
which  is  preserved  by  Fueslin,  in  his  Beitriigc  zur  Ref.  Cresch. 
des  Schweitzerlands  ;  and  the  fact  is  attested  by  Bullinger,  a 
cotemporary  historian,  and  Zwingle's  successor  in  Zurich,  who 
could  hardly  have  fallen  into  so  great  an  error  in  writing  the 
history  of  his  own  times. 

The  political  troubles  of  the  Swiss  were  renewed  in  1520, 
and  still  more  in  1521,  by  the  intrigues  of  the  pope,  and  by 
the  efforts  of  Francis  I.,  king  of  France,  and  the  emperor, 
Charles  V.,  to  secure  their  aid  in  the  wars  which  these  rival 
princes  waged  against  one  another.  Francis  finally  suc- 
ceeded, in  a  diet  of  the  confederates  held  at  Luzern  on  the 
3d  of  May,  1521,  to  conclude  a  treaty  of  alliance  with  all  the 
cantons  except  Zurich.  This  canton  resolved,  in  pursuance 
of  the  counsels  and  earnest  admonitions  of  Zwingle,  to  main- 


*  Schroeck,  &c.  p.  114.     Fuesli's  Beitrage  zur  Ref.  Gescli.  des  Schweitz- 
erlands, vol.  ii.  No.  4. 


GERMAN    REFORMED    CHURCH.  123 

tain  a  strict  neutrality,  and  to  adhere  to  the  treaty  of  per- 
petual peace  which  all  the  cantons  had  subscribed  and  sworn  in 
1510.  The- pope,  nevertheless,  had  the  address  to  obtain  from 
Z(n-/t'/i  a  force  of  about  three  thousand  men,  ostensibly  for  the 
protection  of  the  territories  of  the  church,  but  in  reality  for 
the  service  of  the  emperor,  with  whom  he  had  secretly  entered 
into  a  treaty  for  the  expulsion  of  the  French  from  Italy. 
Zwingle,  who  was  zealously  opposed  to  all  foreign  alliances 
that  would  call  away  the  Swiss  soldier  from  his  own  soil,  in- 
veighed against  this  compliance  with  papal  interests  in  strong 
terms ;  but  the  council  thought  themselves  obliged,  by  a  for- 
mer covenant,  to  aid  in  protecting  the  pontiff  and  the  church, 
while  they  refused  to  participate  at  all  in  the  strife  between 
the  emperor  and  the  king  of  France.  When  the  troops  were 
well  on  their  way  to  Itahj,  the  secret  of  their  destination 
transpired  ;  upon  which  an  express  was  sent  to  recall  them ; 
but  they  were  permitted  to  continue  their  march  after  renewed 
assurances  that  they  should  not  act  against  the  Frencb,  and 
after  exacting  an  oath  to  that  effect  from  every  soldier.  The 
united  forces  of  the  pope  and  the  emperor  triumphed  over 
those  of  Francis,  and  drove  them  out  of  the  Milanese  terri- 
tories ;  and  the  troops  of  the  twelve  cantons  returned  to  their 
own  cotintry  without  either  laurels  or  booty.  Those  cantons 
were  previously  incensed  against  Zurich  for  refusing  to  unite 
with  them  in  a  common  cause,  and,  after  the  defeat  of  their  expe- 
dition, became  still  more  embittered  against  her ;  and  more 
still  because  she  had  furnished  troops  to  the  opposing  parties, 
erroneously  believing  that  those  troops  had  participated  in 
the  contest.  The  bitterest  odium  fell  upon  Zwingle,  who  was 
charged  as  the  author  of  all  their  dissensions,  and  of  the  con- 
sequences that  arose  from  them :  the  very  man  who  of  all 
others  labored  most  to  put  away  the  causes  of  their  broils  and 
of  their  debasement  and  distress,  and  who  had  raised  his  voice 
loud  and  long,  on  the  late  occasion,  against  the  succors  fur- 
nished to  the  pope.  Even  in  Zurich,  Zwingle's  political 
reforms  raised  up  enemies  against  him.  Among  these  were 
many  who  had  at  first  favored  his  religious  reformation  ;  and 


124  HISTORY   OF   THE 

these  were  not  always  those  of  the  lowest  order,  but  the  men 
of  most  influence  in  the  state,  and  leaders  among  the  peojDle. 
Thej  were  those  who  were  bribed  with  foreign  pensions  to 
serve  the  pope,  or  the  king  of  France,  whatever  might  be  the 
consequence  to  their  own  country,  and  those  who  coveted 
similar  favors  ;  all  of  whom  saw  their  hope  cut  off  by  the  new 
order  of  things  which  the  reformer  was  laboring  to  establish. 
The  council  had,  some  years  before,  (July,  1513,)  forbidden 
the  acceptance  of  foreign  pensions,  and  bound  every  citizen 
of  the  state,  by  an  oath,  to  the  faithful  observance  of  their 
decree :  and  this  oath  was  exacted  anew  in  1521,  after  their 
refusal  to  unite  with  the  other  cantons  in  their  treaty  of 
alliance  with  France.  The  practice,  nevertheless,  continued 
in  secret ;  but  it  was  now  attended  with  danger,  and  detection 
would  expose  the  culprits  to  the  vengeance  of  the  law.  It 
was,  therefore,  their  interest  to  have  the  law  abrogated,  and 
the  practice  left  free ;  but  to  this,  Zwingle  and  all  his  adhe- 
rents were  zealously  opposed ;  and  his  voice  was  raised,  in 
tones  of  indignation,  against  the  baseness  of  men  who  would 
subject  their  country  to  all  the  miseries  that  resulted  from 
their  treachery,  for  the  sake  of  gold.  The  whole  tribe  of 
pensioners,  with  all  their  dependants,  therefore  became  the 
mortal  enemies  of  Zwingle,  and  of  all  his  reforms,  both  reli- 
gious and  political,  and  went  over  to  the  side  of  the  Papists, 
with  a  deadly  hatred  of  the  Reformation.  This  party  invented, 
and  gave  circulation  to,  the  most  injurious  calumnies  against 
the  reformer  and  his  measures,  which  were  readily  received 
and  eagerly  devoured  by  bigoted  Papists,  not  only  through- 
out the  canton,  but  beyond  its  limits,  in  every  part  of  Swit- 
zerland which  they  could  be  made  to  reach,  especially  where 
the  reformer  could  not  be  heard  in  his  defence  ;  and  of  all  the 
miscreants  that  are  consigned  to  blackness  of  darkness,  none 
appeared  more  hateful  to  devout  Papists,  whose  information 
was  obtained  from  this  polluted  source,  than  the  unfortunate 
Zwingle.* 

*  J.  J.  HottLnger,  &c.,  p.  58,  65-70.     Voegelin's  Jahrtafel,  p.  25. 


GERMAN  REFORMED   CHURCH.  125 

To  these  trials  were  added  others,  which  arose  from  the 
machinations  of  the  bishop  of  Constance,  Hugo  of  Landenberg, 
and  his  vicar,  John  Faber.  These  dignitaries  had  until  lately 
been  Zwingle's  friends,  acknowledged  the  corruptions  of  the 
church,  and  promised  to  contribute  their  part  to  its  reforma- 
tion ;  but  seeing  what  that  reformation  would  be,  and  how  it 
would  affect  their  interests,  they  opposed  it,  secretly  at  first, 
openly  afterwards,  and  their  friendship  was  gradually  trans- 
formed into  fixed  enmity  and  hatred.  The  reformer  saw 
himself,  not  only  forsaken  in  the  conflict,  but  resisted  by  all 
the  prelates  of  the  church  who  possessed  the  power  to  aid  him, 
and  whom  he  had  hoped  to  see  as  leaders  in  so  righteous  a 
cause.  These  perfidious  ecclesiastics  encouraged  his  enemies, 
counteracted  all  his  measures,  and  endeavored  to  effect  his 
entire  overthrow.  Amidst  these  difiiculties,  which  rather 
increased  than  diminished  from  day  to  day,  and  of  which  no 
end  could  be  seen,  he  often  felt  inexpressibly  oppressed,  and 
sometimes  entertained  thoughts  of  retiring  from  his  ministry, 
and  seeking  some  obscure  retreat,  where  he  might  find  a 
respite  from  his  toil  and  grief:  "  Oh  !  that  I  had  wings  like  a 
dove  ;  then  would  I  fly  away  and  be  at  rest."  This  despond- 
ing thought,  which  a  holier  man  than  he  could  not  always 
forbear  to  entertain,  may  often  have  had  possession  of  his 
mind  in  its  deepest  afflictions ;  but,  soon  recovering  his  trust 
in  God,  he  resumed  his  courage,  rose  above  his  difficulties,  and 
despised  every  danger  ;  even  when  his  situation  was  such  that 
his  life  was  sought,  and  there  was  scarcely  a  place  remaining 
where  he  could  lie  down  and  rest  in  safety.* 

In  the  early  part  of  1521,  Zwingle  was  elected  to  a  canon- 
ship  by  the  chapter,  and  he  might  now,  agreeably  to  the  old 
custom,  have  retired  from  active  life,  and  passed  the  remainder 
of  his  days  in  a  dignified  leisure ;  but  he  retained  his  pastorship, 
and  continued  to  perform  all  the  same  duties,  with  incessant 
application,  to  the  end  of  his  life.  Neither  was  he  content 
with  the  labors  he  was  performing,  or  with  the  acquisitions  he 


*  Voegelin's  Jahrtafel,  p.  27. 
l2 


126  HISTORY   OP   THE 

had  made,  so  long  as  any  thing  remained  to  be  done,  or  any 
thing  to  be  acquired,  by  which  he  could  be  more  useful  to  the 
cause  of  truth  and  of  piety.  In  1522,  John  Boeschenstein,  a 
skilful  Hebraist,  and  a  pupil  of  the  celebrated  Reuchlin, 
came  to  Zurich,  and  the  opportunity  being  thus  presented, 
Zwingle  gladly  embraced  it,  to  acquire  a  knowledge  of  the 
Hebrew  language,  that  he  might  be  enabled  to  read  the  Old 
Testament,  as  well  as  the  New,  in  its  original  fountains.* 
Regarding  the  Holy  Scriptures  as  the  main  source  of  religious 
knowledge,  and  as  the  only  standard  of  faith  and  practice,  he 
justly  thought  it  all-important  that  a  minister  of  religion 
should  be  able  to  interpret  them  accurately  and  lucidly,  and 
his  experience  had  taught  him  the  impossibility  of  ascertaining 
their  true  sense  in  many  places,  without  a  sufficient  acquaint- 
ance with  their  original  languages.  For  this  reason  he  applied 
himself  with  the  utmost  diligence  to  the  study  of  the  Greek 
language,  after  his  settlement  at  Crlarus,  and  was  satisfied 
with  no  attainments  in  it  until  he  had  mastered  it  and  was 
familiar  with  all  its  standard  writers :  and  now,  looking  for- 
ward to  an  exposition  of  the  Old  Testament,  he  saw  nothing 
in  his  advanced  years,  nor  in  the  multiplicity  of  his  other 
engagements,  to  excuse  him  from  the  toil  of  learning  a  lan- 
guage so  new  to  the  divines  of  that  period,  and  so  difficult,  as 
the  Hebrew.  That  his  attempt  was  not  an  abortive  one,  and 
that  his  progress  was  not  inconsiderable,  is  proved  by  his 
German  translation  of  the  Psalms,  with  marginal  notes,  and 
his  Latin  version  of  the  book  of  Job.f  He  had  loftier  ideas 
of  the  gospel  ministry,  and  of  the  requisite  qualifications  for 
it,  than  those  which  are  common  in  our  day :  and  while  his 
example  affords  the  best  encouragement  to  the  faithful  minister 
of  Christ,  who  is  desirous  of  being  well-furnished  for  his  im- 
portant work,  it  administers  a  severe  rebuke  to  those  whose 
chief  concern  is  to  be  admitted  into  the  sacred  office  on  the 


*  According  to  Hottinger,  he  had  received  some  instruction  in  Hebrew 
from  Ceporinus,  in  1520.     See  Hettinger,  &c.,  p.  52. 
f  Voegelin's  Jahrtafel,  p.  27. 


GERMAN   REFORMED    CHURCH.  127 

easiest  terms,  and,  when  they  have  compassed  that  end,  lay 
aside  the  studies  that  were  deemed  necessary  to  qualify  them 
for  it,  and  soon  forget  the  little  they  once  knew. 

Hitherto  the  laws  and  customs  of  the  church  had  continued 
to  maintain  their  authority,  but  the  people  had  begun  to  per- 
ceive their  unscriptural  character,  and  to  become  impatient 
of  the  heavy  yoke  which  they  imposed;  and  in  this  year, 
(1522,)  some  of  the  citizens  of  Zurich  determined  to  assert 
their  liberty  by  eating  flesh  on  fast-days  and  during  the  season 
of  Lent.  These  inroads  upon  the  laws  of  the  church  provoked 
the  bishop  of  Constance  to  address  a  remonstrance  to  the 
chapter  against  such  innovations,  which  was  transmitted  by  a 
special  deputation.*  Zwingle,  whom  this  measure  was  par- 
ticulai'ly  designed  to  affect,  was  now  under  the  necessity  of 
taking  ground  against  his  superior,  and  to  risk  the  conse- 
quences of  an  open  rupture.  He  appeared  accordingly  before 
the  chapter,  and,  on  the  next  day,  before  the  council,  in  the 
presence  of  the  bishop's  deputies,  and  both  vindicated  the 
liberty  of  Christians  in  things  of  that  kind,  and  defended  the 
doctrine  which  he  had  taught ;  and  this  he  did  with  such  effect, 
that  the  council  resolved,  unanimously,  that  the  bishop  be 
requested  to  obtain  without  delay  the  judgment  of  the  highest 
ecclesiastical  authorities  on  the  controverted  subject,  and  to 
publish  the  same  for  general  information,  and  that,  in  the 
mean  time,  the  people  should  be  admonished  to  abstain  from 
all  unauthorized  innovations.  The  reformer  saw  that  this 
question  would  now,  probably,  come  to  an  early  decision,  and 
that  the  determination  of  it  would  have  an  important  bearing 
upon  the  whole  ritual  of  the  church.  He  was,  therefore, 
anxious  that  both  the  council  and  the  public  should  be  well 
prepared  for  the  crisis,  and  that  the  expected  answer  from  the 
highest  authorities  in  the  church,  which  he  easily  foresaw 
v.ould  be  unfavorable  to  his  doctrine,  should  not  unsettle  the 


*  The  deputies  were  John  Faher,  the  bishop's  sufiFragan,  John  Vanner,  or 
Wanner,  cathedral  preacher,  and  N.  Brenli.  They  came  to  Zurich  on  the 
7th  of  April. 


128  HISTORY   OP   THE 

minds  of  those  wlio  were  well  inclined.     For  this  purpose,  he 
wrote  and  published  the  first  of  his  avowed  writings,  under 
the  title,  Vom  Urkiesen  unci  Freiheit  der  Speisen, — Of  the 
clioice  and  the  freeness  of  meats.     This  treatise  was  eagerly 
read,  and  created  a  great  sensation.     To  counteract  its  effect, 
the  bishop   addressed  to   all  the   clergy  and  people   of  his 
diocese  a  pastoral  letter,  teeming  with  complaints  against  what 
he   called   disturbing  and    dangerous  innovations,   and  with 
warnings  to  abstain  from  them;  and  in  another  letter,  ad- 
dressed to  the  provost  and  chapter,  he  admonished  the  cantons 
to  beware  of  the  poison  of  the  new  doctrines,  and  urged  them 
to  an  earnest  resistance  against  those  who  taught  them,  and 
thereby  disparaged  and  degraded  the  ancient  usages  of  the 
church.     When  this  letter  was  read  in  the  chapter,  Zwingle 
requested  that  it  be  placed  in  his  hands,  that  he  might  prepare 
his  reply  to  it,  saying,  "  With  the  help  of  God  I  will  give  it 
such  an  answer,  that  every  one  may  see  the  truth,  and  discover 
the  impostures  of  these  men."     His  answer  was  entitled  Ar- 
chetelcs;  that  is,  The  beginning  and  the  end;  intimating  the 
hope  that,  as  this  was  the  beginning  of  his  controversy  on  this 
subject,  so  it  would  also  be  the  end  of  it.     In  this  production, 
he  frankly  acknowledged  that  he  rejected  all  arbitrary  human 
prescriptions  in  religion ;   that  he  taught  the  doctrine  of  the 
Holy  Scriptues  alone,  and  without  regard  to  the  systems  of 
the  schools ;  and  that  he  viewed  all  religious  compulsion  with 
abhorrence. 

In  the  chapter,  Zwingle's  most  active  opponent  was  Conrad 
Hoffman,  formerly  the  pastor  of  the  church.  He  had  given 
his  vote  for  him,  but  became  dissatisfied  when  he  heard  the 
annunciation  of  his  purpose  to  neglect  the  long-established 
pericopes,  which  alone  had  been  read  to  the  people,  and  to 
expound  whole  books  of  the  New  Testament  Avithout  regard 
to  any  human  authorities ;  and  still  more  was  he  discontented 
when  he  observed,  what  he  had  before  apprehended,  how  such 
a  mode  of  teaching  unsettled  the  people's  faith  in  the  doc- 
trines and  usages  of  the  church.  With  him  the  authority  of 
the  church,  which  professed  to  be  under  the  constant  guidance 


GERMAN   REFORMED    CHURCH.  129 

of  the  Holy  Ghost,  was  paramount ;  the  Bible  was  to  be  un- 
derstood only  as  the  church  interpreted  it  through  the  fathers, 
the  councils,  the  popes,  and  her  approved  divines ;  her  tradi- 
tions were  of  equal  weight  Avith  the  written  word ;  in  ordain- 
ing articles  of  faith  and  ceremonies  of  worship,  she  was  infal- 
lible, and  whatever  she  had  sanctioned  was,  therefore,  to  be 
received  as  of  divine  authority.  To  reject  these  principles, 
to  adhere  to  the  written  word  alone,  to  interpret  the  Bible 
agreeably  to  his  own  judgment,  and  to  subject  the  church  to 
the  judgment  of  the  Bible,  as  he  understood  it, — this  was  a 
daring  and  unheard-of  presumption,  which  no  good  Catholic 
could  approve,  or  endure.  Soon  after  the  bishop's  inter- 
ference, Hoffman,  therefore,  preferred  a  complaint  in  writing 
against  the  reformer,  in  the  assembled  chapter.  As  an  honest 
man,  he  had  the  candor  to  acknowledge  the  merits  of  the 
preacher,  the  correctness  of  some  of  his  views,  and  the  utility 
of  many  of  his  instructions ;  he  admitted  that  there  were 
abuses  in  some  monasteries  and  the  lives  of  many  monks  that 
deserved  to  be  chastised,  but  thought  that  rebuke  should  be 
administered  with  prudence,  and  existing  corruptions  should 
not  be  exposed  to  the  multitude.  Erasmus,  he  thought,  had 
already  done  much  harm  in  this  way  ;  since  Luther's  doctrine 
had  been  condemned  by  the  universities  of  Cologne  and  Lou- 
vain^  they  ought  not  to  be  taught  at  all,  either  in  public  or  in 
private,  unless  they  were  clearly  contained  in  the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures, or  in  other  good  books,  ^intil  the  rulers  of  the  church 
shall  have  pronounced  their  judgment ;  he  complained  that 
Zwingle  had  handled  the  scholastic  divines,  whom  the  church 
approved,  with  severity,  and  had  extracted  from  their  writings 
opinions  which  appeared  to  the  people  senseless  and  frivolous, 
by  which  he  had  injured  the  community  much  more  than  if  he 
had  destroyed  half  the  fruits  of  the  earth ;  Zwingle  should 
insist  more  on  the  reverence  which  is  due  to  the  holy  virgin ; 
he  should  show  the  consistency  of  the  worship  of  the  saints 
with  the  worship  of  God,  and  not  forbid  to  say  the  holy  Pater- 
noster in  honor  of  them  also  ;  he  should  not  prove  his  doc- 
trine by  Greek  books  not  yet  translated  into  Latin,  and  should 

17 


130  HISTORY   OF  THE 

affirm  nothing  which  he  could  not  support  by  the  words  of 
some  eminent  doctor ;  and,  finally,  every  one  is  to  be  held  a 
heretic  who  presumes  to  interpret  the  Scripture  in  any  other 
sense  than  that  Avhich  the  Holy  Ghost  has  given  it ;  [that  is, 
-the  church  speaking  by  the  Holy  Ghost.]  The  reformer  met 
these  complaints  by  a  reply  that  silenced  his  opponents  and 
covered  his  accuser  with  shame.* 

His  most  virulent  enemies  in  the  city  were  the  monks  of 
the  three  mendicant  orders,  the  Dominicans,  the  Franciscans, 
and  the  Augustinians  ;  especially  the  first-named,  who  were, 
all  the  world  over,  the  chief  instruments  of  the  hierarchy  for 
the  discovery  and  the  punishment  of  heresy.  The  pulpits  of 
the  monastic  preachers  sounded  incessantly  with  strains  of 
invective  against  the  reformer,  and  their  convents  were  the 
places  of  resort  for  the  zealous  adherents  of  the  old  supersti- 
tion, who  were  plotting  his  overthrow.  They  were  treated  by 
him,  in  their  turn,  with  as  little  tenderness.  He  exposed  their 
ignorance  and  their  vices,  and  the  absurdity  of  their  institu- 
tions, with  irresistible  evidence,  and  held  them  up  to  public 
odium  and  scorn.  They  felt  their  inability  to  sustain  them- 
selves in  the  contest,  and  were  desirous  of  terminating  it  by 
the  intervention  of  the  civil  authority.  For  this  end,  they  pre- 
ferred their  complaint  to  the  council,  and  found  means  to  pro- 
cure a  decree  which  forbade  in  future  all  preaching  against  the 
monks.  This  order  Zwingle  disregarded,  inasmuch  as  the  monks 
continued  to  preach  what  he  esteemed  falsehoods.  Their  griev- 
ance was,  therefore,  at  their  instance,  referred  to  a  special  com- 
mission, which,  after  much  altercation,  agreed  by  a  majority 
to  the  proposition.  That  nothing  which  might  cause  dissension 
should  thereafter  be  preached,  but  every  thing  of  this  kind 
should  be  submitted  for  a  decision  to  the  judgment  of  the 
chapter.  This  preposterous  proposition  Zwingle  rejected 
instantly.  He  declared  that  he  Avould  preach  the  gospel, 
agreeably  to  the  mandate  already  promulgated,  and  would  be 
embarrassed  by  no  conditions.     In  Zurich,  he  said,  he  was 

*Hottinger,  &c.,  p.  101,  &c.     Voegelin,  &c.,  p.  29. 


GERMAN   REFORMED   CHURCH.  181 

pastor,  and  was  charged  with  the  care  of  souls ;  he,  and  not 
the  monks,  had  sworn  to  the  faithful  performance  of  that  office. 
He  was  sustained  by  the  council,  and  the  monks  were  com- 
manded to  put  away  their  scholastics  and  other  human  au- 
thorities, and  to  preach  only  what  they  could  prove  by  clear 
testimonies  of  the  written  word.  The  secular  priests  were  at 
the  same  time  authorized  to  officiate  in  the  pulpits  of  the 
<3onventuals,  from  which  they  had  formerly  been  excluded. 
Zwinglc  was  particularly  directed  to  preach  in  the  female  con- 
vent of  Oeteiibach,  to  which  none  but  the  Dominicans  had 
been  permitted  to  have  access.  In  that  place  he  preached 
the  sermon  "  On  the  perspicuity  and  certainty  of  the  Divine 
"Word,"  which  he  afterwards  enlarged  and  published,  with  a 
dedication  to  the  nuns,  to  encourage  them  to  read  and  study 
the  Holy  Scriptures.* 

Not  only  the  chapter  and  the  monastic  fraternities,  but  the 
general  diet  of  the  confederacy  also  were  moved  by  the  bishop 
to  take  a  position  against  the  reformer.  A  diet,  assembled  at 
Luzern  in  May,  1522,  decreed,  "  That,  inasmuch,  as  the 
priests  everywhere  in  the  confederacy  were  preaching  contra- 
dictory doctrines,  whereby  dissensions  and  discontents  were 
<;aused  among  the  people,  and  occasion  Avas  given  to  errors  in 
the  Christian  faith,  the  authorities  of  the  several  cantons  should 
converse  with  their  priests,  and  cause  them  to  desist  from  such 
preaching,  "f 

This  decree  might  be  regarded  as  an  incipient  step  toward 
an  authorized  persecution,  and  it  Avas,  therefore,  not  a  little 
important  to  meet  it  at  the  outset  with  a  counteracting 
influence.  Zwingle  and  other  evangelical  preachers,  there- 
fore, met  at  Einsiedeln  to  deliberate  upon  the  course  they 
should  pursue,  and  resolved  to  address  both  the  bishop  of  the 
diocese  and  the  authorities  of  the  cantons,  in  the  hope  of  soft- 
ening their  asperity,  and  procuring  at  least  forbearance,  if 
they  could  not  obtain  their  approbation.     They  addressed  an 


*  Hottinger,  &c.,  p.  82.     Voegelin,  &c.,  p.  31. 
f  Hottinger,  &c.,  p.  82. 


132  HISTORY  OF  THE 

humble  supplication  to  the  bishop  of  Constance,  in  which  they 
entreated  him  to  turn  away  from  the  false  accusations  and 
injurious  promptings  of  their  enemies,  and  to  yield  to  the 
counsel  of  Gamaliel ;  seeing  that,  if  their  work  were  of  men, 
it  would  fall  of  itself,  but  if  it  were  of  God,  all  resistance  to 
it  would  be  vain.  They  besought  him  to  consider  the  excel- 
lency of  the  gospel,  and  the  great  favor  which  God  was 
vouchsafing  to  their  times,  in  the  spirit  of  inquiry  that  pre- 
vailed, and  in  the  preaching  of  the  unadulterated  gospel,  and 
pressed  upon  his  attention  the  divine  judgment  that  might  be 
justly  apprehended  if  so  great  a  mercy  were  contemned. 
They  expressed  a  hope  that  the  bishop  would  consider  it  his 
duty  to  protect  the  preaching  of  God's  word,  declared  their 
unalterable  purpose  to  persist  in  their  ministration  of  it,  and 
observed  that,  if  the  bishop,  or  any  of  the  authorities,  should 
resist  them,  they  would  see  in  that  fact  only  a  verification  of 
the  prediction,  that  Christ  would  be  a  sign  to  be  spoken 
against.  This  supplication  was  subscribed  by  Balthazar 
Trachsel,  pastor  of  Art,  in  the  canton  of  Scliweitz ;  George 
Stehelin,  lately  Zwingle's  deacon,  now  pastor  of  Weiningen, 
in  the  canton  of  Zurich  ;  Werner  Steiner,  priest  of  Zug,  in 
the  canton  of  Zug  ;  Leo  Juda,  pastor  of  Einsiedeln  ;  Erasmus 
Schmid,  canon  of  the  Great-Minster  in  Zurich  ;  Hans  Schmid, 
chaplain  of  the  same  place  ;  Simon  Stumpf,  pastor  of  Hoengg, 
in  the  canton  of  Zurich ;  Ulric  Pfister,  pastor  of  Uster,  in 
the  same  canton  ;  Jodocus  Kilchmeyer,  canon  of  Luzern,  in 
the  canton  of  Luzern ;  Caspar  Grossman,  or  Megander, 
preacher  at  the  hospital  in  Zurich ;  and  Ulrick  Zwingle. 
The  act  of  subscribing  such  an  address  to  the  bishop  was  not 
without  its  danger,  and,  but  for  the  circumstances  of  the  times, 
and  the  bishop's  weakness,  would  have  cost  the  signers  their 
livings,  if  not  their  liberty.  In  their  address  to  the  cantonal 
authorities,  they  respectfully  and  humbly  prayed  them  to  put 
no  hinderance  in  the  way  of  the  gospel-ministry ;  they  repre- 
sented that  the  gospel  was  the  only  means  of  salvation  to 
sinful  men,  and  the  only  fountain  of  spiritual  consolation  and 
strength ;  that  it  was  to  be  learned  only  from  the  Holy  Scrip- 


GERMAN   REFORMED   CHURCH.  133 

tnres ;  that  no  human  power  could  stay  its  progress ;  that  the 
preaching  of  it  was  necessary  to  the  well-being  of  their  coun- 
try ;  and  for  that  reason,  they  were  fully  resolved  to  proclaim 
it  to  the  people.  And  as  nothing  was  more  injurious  to  the 
prevalence  of  truth  than  a  vicious  example  in  the  lives  of  the 
clergy,  and  the  law  of  celibacy,  imposed  upon  the  order  . 
without  distinction,  was  a  prolific  cause  of  public  scandal, 
they  humbly  prayed  for  the  abrogation  of  that  law,  or,  at 
least,  a  connivance  at  the  transgression  of  it  by  those  eccle- 
siastics who  might  think  it  proper  to  enter  into  the  bonds  of 
matrimony.  The  same  request  was  made  also  in  their  petition 
to  the  bishop,  whom  they  besought  to  procure  this  act  of 
justice  from  the  supreme  authority  in  the  church.  This 
address  was  forwarded  without  the  signatures  of  its  authors ; 
probably  because  those  of  them  who  lived  under  rigidly  popish 
governments,  might  have  been  exposed  to  serious  dangers  if 
their  names  had  appeared  to  such  an  instrument.* 

These  transactions  served  to  disseminate  more  extensively 
the  principles  of  the  Reformation,  and  to  spread  the  reformer's 
fame  over  Switzerland  and  the  neighboring  countries.  Letters 
came  to  him  every  day  from  persons  at  a  distance,  who 
apprized  him  of  their  concurrence  in  his  opinions,  and  solicited 
his  friendship;  the  confidence  of  the  people  grew,  and  their 
approbation  of  the  principles  of  religious  liberty,  which  he 
inculcated,  became  daily  more  visible  in  their  conversation 
and  their  manner  of  life. 

About  this  time,  (June,  1522,)  Franciscus  Lambert,  a 
learned  monk  of  the  order  of  St.  Francis,  who  had  been  many 
years  professor  of  theology  at  Avignon  in  France,  came  to 
Zwrt'c/i,  after  visiting  other  cities  o?  Szvitzerland,  and  preached 
repeatedly  in  the  church  of  Notre  Dame.  In  one  of  these 
discourses,  he  vindicated  the  intercession  of  the  saints,  and 
held,  consequently,  the  propriety  of  invoking  them  in  prayer. 
Being  contradicted  by  Zwingle,  he  solicited  a  public  conference 

*  Hottinger,  &c.,  p.  84-85.  Voegelin's  Jahrtafel,  &c.,  p.  30-31.  Gieseler'g 
Lehrbuch,  &c.,  p.  150,  note  55. 

M 


134  HISTORY   OP   THE 

with  him ;  but,  after  a  discussion  of  some  hours,  he  acknow- 
ledged his  error,  and,  with  uplifted  hands,  gave  thanks  to 
God  for  his  deliverance  from  it.  He  became  afterwards  an 
efficient  co-worker  in  the  Reformation.  From  Zurich  he 
went  to  Wittenberg,  where  he  was  kindly  received  by  Luther, 
who  honored  him  with  his  friendship,  and  procured  a  situation 
for  him.  In  1524,  he  attempted  to  introduce  the  Reformation 
at  3Ie.tz,  in  his  native  country,  but  was  foiled  by  the  violent 
opposition  of  the  clergy.  Soon  afterwads  he  taught  with 
much  acceptance  in  Strasburg,  where  he  published  some  com- 
mentaries on  the  Old  Testament.  In  1526,  he  acted  a  con- 
spicuous part  in  the  reformation  of  the  electorate  of  Sessia, 
and,  in  the  succeeding  year,  was  appointed  theological  pro- 
fessor in  the  university  at  Ifarburg,  where  he  taught  with 
distinguished  reputation.  After  the  conference  at  3farburgy 
between  the  Swiss  and  the  Saxon  reformers,  in  1529,  he 
professed  the  doctrine  of  Zwingle  on  the  Lord's  supper.  He 
died  of  the  plague,  in  1530.* 

In  Zurich,  the  reformation  continued  to  advance.  Some- 
thing was  done  toward  the  organization  of  a  high-school,  by 
the  appointment  of  a  professor  of  Greek  and  Hebrew,  with 
particular  reference  to  the  study  of  the  Holy  Scriptures,  and 
the  education  of  a  suitably  qualified  ministry  for  the  churches 
of  the  canton ;  abandoned  females  were  expelled  from  the 
city  and  canton  ;  and  places  of  refuge,  where  the  vicious 
found  protection  from  merited  vengeance,  were  shut  up.  The 
spirit  of  reform  penetrated  into  the  convent  of  Oetenbach. 
Some  of  the  nuns,  believing  that  the  life  of  a  convent  was  less 
favorable  to  genuine  piety  than  the  occupations  of  common 
life,  were  desirous  of  abandoning  the  order,  while  the  majority 
wished  to  remain,  and  opposed  the  separation  of  the  discon- 
tented nuns.  The  council  ordered  that  all  the  nuns  should 
remain  until  Whitsuntide  of  the  ensuing  year,  in  the  expecta- 
tion of  events  which  might  indicate  the  course  to  be  pursued. 
And  as  many  of  the  clergy  continued  to  receive  pensions  from 

*  Schroeck,  &c.,  vol.  ii.,  p.  29.     Voegelin^  &c.,  p.  31. 


GERMAN   REFORMED    CHURCH.  135 

the  pope,  to  attach  them  to  his  interests,  the  whole  body  were 
assembled  in  the  great-minster,  and  obliged  by  an  oath  to 
relinquish  them  in  future.* 

■'  About  the  middle  of  August,  1522,  the  chapter  of  Zurich- 
see,  containing  thirty-eight  parishes,  and  extending  from  the 
canton  of  Glarus,  on  the  Lint,  the  lake  of  Zurich,  and  the 
Limmat,  to  the  county  of  Baden,  inclusive,  in  a  meeting  held 
at  Bapperschweil,  resolved,  unanimously,  to  preach  only  what 
they  could  prove  by  the  word  of  God.  In  pursuance  of  this 
resolution,  Hans  Urban  Weiss,  pastor  of  Visisbach,  rejected 
the  invocation  of  the  virgin  Mary  and  the  saints,  taught  that 
it  was  suflBcient  to  address  ourselves  in  prayer  to  God  alone, 
and  formed  a  matrimonial  engagement,  anticipating  the  abro- 
gation of  the  law  of  celibacy.  For  these  offences,  he  was 
arrested  and  delivered  over  to  the  custody  of  the  bishop  of 
Constance,  and  orders  were  given  by  the  diet  to  the  governors 
of  the  common  territories  to  inform  them  of  every  priest  who 
taught  any  doctrine  contrary  to  the  established  faith.  Weiss 
was  retained  as  a  prisoner  in  Constance,  and  exertions  were 
made  to  bring  him  back  to  the  bosom  of  the  church  of  Eome. 
Reports  were  circulated  that  he  was  vacillating  in  his  faith, 
when  Zwingle  addressed  to  him  a  letter  of  exhortation  to  faith- 
fulness and  perseverance.  After  a  long  confinement,  he  was 
released,  but  was  ordered  to  quit  the  bishop's  jurisdiction. 
He  settled,  however,  at  Winterthur,  in  the  canton  of  Zurich, 
where  he  was  safe  from  farther  process.  After  this  first  ex- 
ample of  persecution  by  the  civil  authorities  in  Switzerland,  a 
German  nobleman,  Hartman  von  Cronenberg,  leaving  his 
castle  and  estates,  near  Frankfort,  came  to  Basel,  and  there 
published  an  exhortation  to  the  confederates,  beseeching  them 
to  consider  the  greatest  of  all  favors  which  God  was  bestow- 
ing upon  them  in  the  publication  of  his  gospel,  and  to  accept 
it  with  thankfulness. t  On  the  other  hand,  the  prelates  moved 
the  diet  to  persist  in  their  persecuting  measures.  The  depu- 
ties of  the  cantons  were  admonished  by  the  diet  to  urge  their 

*  Hottinger,  &c.,  p.  99,  100.  f  Ibid.  p.  103,  &c. 


136  HISTORY    OF   THE 

respective  governments  to  suppress  the  new  doctrines,  and  the 
rulers  of  Zurich  and  Basel  were  advised  to  put  a  stop  to  the 
printing  of  new  books.* 

The  spirit  of  opposition  was  still  farther  exasperated  by  a 
foreign  influence,  particularly  from  the  see  of  Rome.  Adrian 
VI.,  successor  of  Leo  X.,  elected  to  the  papacy  on  the  9th 
of  January,  1522,  addressed  a  brief  to  the  diet  of  Nuremberg, 
in  November  of  the  same  year,  in  which  he  complained  of  the 
remissness  of  the  German  princes  to  execute  the  decree  of 
Worms  against  Luther,  and  indulged  in  a  strain  of  bitter  in- 
vective against  that  reformer,  to  whom  he  imputed  all  the  evils 
that  afflicted  the  German  empire ;  he  reproached  the  Ger- 
mans for  suffering  themselves  to  be  seduced  by  a  single  apos- 
tate monk,  endeavored  to  excite  the  apprehensions  of  the 
rulers  that  civil  disobedience  and  rebellion  would  soon  follow 
the  religious  apostacy,  fulminated  fearful  threats,  and  held  up 
to  them  for  imitation  the  pious  example  of  the  council  of 
Constance,  who  delivered  the  heretical  John  Huss  to  the 
flames.  This  writing  created  much  alarm  in  the  minds  of 
many,  while  it  inflated  the  insolence  of  the  prelates,  who  gave 
utterance  to  their  vindictive  feelings  in  vehement  outcries 
against  Luther. f  The  flame  which  was  kindled  by  this  brief 
was  not  extinguished  by  the  humiliating  acknowledgment  that 
accompanied  it,  of  the  gross  and  scandalous  corruption  which 
had  prevailed  in  the  chair  of  St.  Peter,  and  from  thence  had 
diffused  itself,  as  from  the  head,  through  all  the  members  of 
the  hierarchy :  it  burned,  perhaps,  the  more  fiercely,  for  the 
degrading  confession  of  their  chief,  which  gave  to  the  great 
heresiarch  so  dangerous  an  advantage ;  and  its  effects  were 
not  confined  to  Germany,  but  extended  to  Switzerland  also, 
where  it  kindled  the  zeal  and  the  anger  of  the  bigoted  Papists 
into  more  violent  heat.| 

Notwithstanding  the  increasing  violence  of  the  opposition, 


»  Hottinger,  &c.,  p.  103,  104. 

■}•  Seckendorf,  Gesch.  des  Lutherthums,  col.  552. 

X  Hottinger,  &c.,  p.  104. 


GERMAN   REFORMED   CHURCH.  137 

the  progress  of  the  Reformation  continued  onward.  The  con- 
vent of  Cappel,  over  which  Wolfgang  Jouer  presided  as  abbot, 
was  converted  by  its  superior  into  a  school  for  the  study  of 
the  Latin  classics  and  the  Holy  Scriptures,  and  Henry  Bul- 
linger,  junior,  who  had  just  returned  from  his  studies  abroad, 
was  called,  in  January,  1523,  to  direct  the  exercises  of  the 
institution.  This  seminary  afterwards  rendered  essential  ser- 
vice to  the  churches  and  the  schools  of  this  canton.* 

But  as  the  warfare  continued  to  rage,  and  to  grow  in  fierce- 
ness, and,  amidst  the  noise  and  clamor  against  the  reformer 
and  the  still  louder  cries  of  heresy,  there  was  danger  that  the 
gentler  voice  of  reason  might  be  unheard,  Zwingle  appeared 
before  the  council,  and  requested  them  to  appoint  a  public 
disputation  on  the  points  at  issue  between  him  and  his  adver- 
saries, promising  to  give  an  account  of  his  doctrine  in  the 
presence  of  the  bishop,  or  of  his  representatives,  and  of  any 
other  persons,  learned  or  unlearned,  and  to  submit,  if  it  were 
proved  to  be  unscriptural,  but  asking  support  and  protection  if 
the  charges  of  heresy  could  not  be  substantiated  by  the  testimo- 
ny of  the  Holy  Scriptures.  The  council  assented  to  his  wishes, 
and  appointed  a  disputation  to  be  held  in  their  presence  on  the 
29th  day  of  February,  1523.  In  their  manifest,  they  com- 
manded the  clergy  throughout  the  canton  to  appear  on  the 
appointed  day,  prepared  with  scriptural  testimonies  to  confute 
the  doctrines  to  which  they  objected,  and  to  prove  the  charges 
of  heresy,  if  they  were  well  founded.  They  promised  that, 
when  it  should  appear  that  these  doctrines  were  consistent, 
or  not  consistent  with  the  word  of  God,  they  would  command 
either  to  persist  in  them  or  to  abstain  from  them ;  to  the  end 
that  every  one  should  not  in  future  propound  in  the  pulpit 
whatever  he  chose,  whether  founded  or  not  in  the  Holy  Scrip-  ^ 
ture.  They  requested  the  bishop  of  Constance  to  attend  either 
in  person  or  by  his  deputies,  and  invited  also  the  representa- 
tives of  the  cantons,  who  were  assembled  in  a  diet  at  Baden,) 


*  Voegelin's  Jahrtafel,  &o.,  p.  34. 
m2  18 


138  HISTORY   OF   THE 

expressing  the  hope  that  Ahnighty  God  would  enlighten  with 
the  knowledge  of  the  truth  those  who  earnestly  sought  it. 

All  the  cantons,  except  Basely  forbade  the  attendance  of  their 
divines.  The  bishop  was  not  present,  but  was  represented  by 
others,  the  principal  of  whom  was  his  suffragan  or  vicar,  John 
Faber.  Notwithstanding  the  opposition  of  the  Papists,  the 
number  who  assembled,  of  clerics  and  laymen,  was  about  six 
hundred.  The  episcopal  deputies  were  unwilling  to  participate 
in  the  discussion,  alleging  that  the  subjects  proposed  for 
debate  should  be  reserved  for  a  general  council,  or  discussed 
before  the  learned  of  the  universities,  and  stated  that  they 
were  present  on  the  part  of  their  bishop,  not  to  discuss  doc- 
trines of  faith,  but  to  inquire,  as  judges,  into  the  religious 
commotions  in  Zurich,  and  to  hear  and  reconcile  the  contend- 
ing parties.  Faber  was,  nevertheless,  unwittingly  drawn  out 
by  Zwingle  into  a  dispute  concerning  the  invocation  of  the 
saints,  and,  in  this  trial,  exposed  most  pitiably  his  ignorance 
of  the  Bible  and  the  weakness  of  his  cause.* 

Although  this  great  religious  movement  was  in  manifest 
violation  of  the  laws  and  customs  of  the  church,  which  referred 
the  decision  of  all  matters  of  faith  and  worship  to  the  sove- 
reign pontiff,  or  to  a  council  recognised  by  him,  yet  the  pope 
took  no  public  notice  of  it.  His  forbearance  proceeded  from 
political  considerations.  Zurich  was  the  only  one  of  the  thir- 
teen cantons  that  perseveringly  rejected  the  French  alliance, 
and  had,  so  lately  as  the  year  1521,  granted  a  body  of  auxi- 
liaries to  his  holiness ;  and,  standing  as  it  did  at  the  head  of 
the  confederacy,  the  pope  felt  no  little  anxiety  to  retain  it  in 
his  interests.  Adrian,  therefore,  overlooked  what  was  hardly 
to  be  borne  with,  and,  instead  of  uttering  his  anathemas, 
courted  the  friendship  of  the  leaders  of  this  religious  sedition, 
and  of  Zwingle,  the  master-spirit  in  these  hated  measures. f 
The  captain  of  his  guard,  Caspar  Roeust,  came  to  Zurich, 
under  the  pretence  of  visiting  his  father,  and  brought  with 


*  Hottinger,  &c.,  p.  106.     Voegelin,  &c.,  p.  34. 

f  Gieseler's  Lehrbuch,  &c.,  p.  152.     Hottinger,  &c.,  p.  107,  110-112. 


GERMAN   REFORMED   CHURCH.  139 

him  a  letter  from  the  pope,  full  of  soothing  blandishments,  to 
the  burgomaster  of  the  same  name,  who  was,  probably,  his 
relative.  With  him  came  the  legate  Ennius,  who  was  instructed 
to  assure  the  Zurichian  magistrate  of  the  pontiff 's  kind  dis- 
position toward  him,  and  to  propose  to  the  confederacy  an 
alliance  with  the  holy  see.  The  same  Ennius  was  charged 
with  a  special  mission  to  Zwingle,  to  whom  he  delivered  a 
private  letter  from  his  master,  in  which,  after  some  very  com- 
plimentary notices  of  Zwingle' s  eminent  merits,  the  holy  father 
intimated  the  great  favor  which  he  might  expect  from  the 
court  of  Rome,  wished  lym  to  pay  attention  to  the  propositions 
of  his  legate,  and  promised  him  a  profusion  of  advantages  if 
he  would  support  the  interests  of  the  apostolic  see.  At  the 
same  time,  Francis  Zing,  the  intimate  friend  and  associate  of 
Zwinde  at  Mnseidehi,  who  was  also  honored  with  the  title  of 
acolyte  chaplain  to  the  pope,  received  an  epistle  from  the 
pontiff,  by  which  he  was  authorized  to  make  proposals  to  his 
friend,  and  urged  to  bring  him  over  to  the  interests  of  Borne. 
When  Myconius  asked  him  what  the  pope  had  promised  to 
Zwingle, he  replied,  "Everything  except  the  papal  throne."* 
Zwingle  himself  says  of  these  alluring  offers :  "  Lately,  still,  I 
received  letters  from  the  pope,  and  great  verbal  promises :  all 


*  Voegelin,  &c.,  p.  33.  Schroeck,  &c.,  vol.  ii.  p.  219.  Schuler's  Huld- 
reich  Zwingle,  Notes,  note  177,  p.  59,  60.  Gieseler's  Lehrb.,  &c.,  p.  153. 
The  pope's  letter,  as  we  have  it  in  Schuler's  note,  is  as  follows:  "Adrian 
VI.,  Pope.  Beloved  son!  Salutation  and  apostolic  benediction !  We  have 
sent  the  brother  Ennius,  bishop  of  Veroli,  and  nuncius  of  the  apostolic  see, 
a  wise  and  creditable  man,  to  the  invincible,  and  with  us  and  this  holy  see 
most  intimately  united  people,  to  treat  with  the  same  of  matters  of  the 
utmost  importance  to  us,  to  our  see,  and  to  all  Christendom.  Although  we 
have  given  him  in  charge  to  treat  thereof  with  all  the  states  publicly,  yet, 
inasmuch  as  we  have  knowledge  of  your  eminent  virtue,  and  cordially  love 
your  devotion,  and  repose  especial  confidence  in  you,  we  have  commanded 
the  bishop,  our  nuncius,  to  deliver  our  letter  separately  to  you,  and  to  as- 
sure you  of  our  best  wishes  toward  you.  We  therefore  exhort  your  devotion 
in  the  Lord,  that  you  both  give  entire  credit  to  him,  and  proceed  in  things 
relating  to  us  and  the  said  apostolic  see,  in  the  same  mind  which  we  have 
pursued  for  your  honor  and  advantage ;  by  which  you  will  obtain  distin- 
guished favor  with  us."     [Hortamur  itaque  devotionem  tuam  in  Domino,  ut 


140  HISTORY   OF   THE 

that  a  vain  and  avaricious  man  could  desire  did  they  offer ;  to 
whom,  God  willing,  I  answered  unmoved  and  in  a  Christian 
manner,  well  knowing  that  I  might  become  as  great  as  any 
one,  if  I  had  not  preferred  the  poverty  of  Christ  to  all  the 
magnificence  of  the  papal  courtiers."* 

These  facts  show  that  the  forbearance  of  Adrian  toward 
Zwingle,  as  well  as  that  of  Leo,  proceeded  from  a  cause  very 
different  from  that  which  Vater  seems  to  insinuate,  and  to 
which  we  have  already  adverted  in  another  place.  It  was, 
doubtless,  after  this  time  that  Adrian's  cardinals  gave  him 
the  advice  mentioned  by  Vater ;  and  ii  was  evidently  designed 
as  a  consolation  to  the  holy  father,  or  as  a  last  resort  in  a 
desperate  cause,  rather  than  as  an  expression  of  contempt  for 
the  Swiss  reformation  and  its  author.  That  the  pope  was 
now  prevented  by  such  advice  from  proceeding  to  extremities 
against  Zwingle,  is  indeed  possible  ;  but  it  is  more  probable 
that  he  considered  such  measures  now  too  late,  after  the  long 
forbearance  of  his  predecessor,  especially  when  he  saw  how 
they  had  aggravated  the  evil  in  G-ermany,  where  there  had 
not  been  so  much  delay.  A  crusade  might  have  accomplished 
his  wishes  in  G-ermany  as  well  as  in  Sivitzerland,  if  the  popish 
princes  had  been  willing  to  unite  their  arms  for  the  extirpation 
of  the  new  heresy.  But  these  princes  had  other  occupation 
than  a  holy  war,  and  other  interests  than  ecclesiastical  ortho- 
doxy: they  were,  moreover,  too  jealous  of  the  court  oi  Rome 
and  of  one  another,  too  much  dissatisfied  with  the  clerical 
order  and  the  corruptions  of  the  church,  and  too  desirous  to 
derive  some  political  advantages  from  the  difficulties  of  the 


et  illi  omnem  fidem  habeas,  et  quo  nos  animo  ad  honores  tuos  et  commoda 
tendimus,  eodem  tu  in  nostris  et  dictaj  sedis  apostolicas  rebus  procedas. 
De  quo  gratiam  apud  nos  invenies  non  mediocrem.]  Dated  at  Rome,  Ja- 
nuary 23,  1523. 

*  Schuler,  &c.,  p.  344.  The  court  of  Rome  resolved  to  try  other  methods 
to  draw  Zwingle  from  his  purpose  than  those  which  it  had  employed  against 
Luther ;  but  both  were  equally  ineffectual.  Luther  could  not  be  terrified 
into  silence  and  submission ;  and  Zwingle  could  neither  be  allured  in  the 
first  instance,  nor  frightened  afterwards. 


GERMAN  REFORMED   CHURCH.  141 

papal  see,  to  engage  heartily  in  such  an  enterprise.  When 
the  popes,  therefore,  saw  that  their  anathemas  were  hurled  at 
Luther  in  vain,  nothing  else  remained  to  them  hut  temporizing 
expedients,  and  the  trial  of,  bribery  and  seduction. 

For  the  appointed  disputation,  the  reformer  drew  up  and 
published  a  summary  of  the  doctrines  he  had  taught,  com- 
prised in  sixty-seven  articles  or  theses,  which  he  pledged 
himself  to  defend  against  the  charge  of  heresy.  They  have 
been  placed  beside  Luther's  ninety-five  theses,  and  viewed  as 
sustaining  the  same  relation  to  the  Swiss  reformation  which 
those  have  to  the  reformation  in  Germany.  We  translate 
them  here,  from  J.  F.  Moeller's  sketch  of  the  history  of  the 
Reformed  church,  in  the  Reformations  Almanack  far  1819, 
and  Crieseler's  Lehrbuch  der  Kirchen  Creschichte,  vol.  iii., 
pt.  1.,  p.  153. 

1.  All  who  say  that  the  gospel  is  nothing  without  the 
approval  of  the  church,  do  err,  and  reproach  God. 

2.  The  sum  of  the  gospel  is.  That  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
the  true  Son  of  God,  has  made  known  to  us  the  will  of  his 
heavenly  Father,  and  has,  by  his  innocence,  redeemed  us 
from  death,  and  reconciled  us  to  God. 

3.  Hence  the  only  way  of  salvation,  for  all  who  were,  are, 
or  shall  be,  is  Christ. 

4.  Whoever  seeks  or  shows  another  way,  errs,  and  is  a 
murderer  of  souls  and  a  thief. 

5.  All  who  make  other  doctrines  equal  or  superior  to  the 
gospel,  do  err,  and  know  not  what  the  gospel  is. 

6.  Christ  Jesus  is  a  leader  and  captain  promised  and  given 
by  God  to  the  whole  human  race, 

7.  That  he  might  be  an  everlasting  salvation,  and  also  the 
head  of  all  believers,  who  are  his  body ;  but  which  is  lifeless 
and  can  do  nothing  without  him. 

8.  From  this  it  follows,  first,  that  all  those  who  live  in  the 
head  are  members  of  the  body,  and  children  of  God ;  and 
this  is  the  church,  or  the  community  of  saints,  a  bride  of 
Christ,  the  catholic  church. 


142  HISTORY   OF   THE 

9.  It  follows,  secondhj,  that  as  the  members  of  the  body  can 
do  nothing  without  the  governing  head,  so  in  the  body  of  Christ 
none  is  able  to  do  the  least  thing  without  Christ  his  head. 

10.  As  a  man  is  insensible  when  the  members  act  without 
their  head,  rend,  wound,  and  injure  themselves  ;  so  also,  when 
the  members  of  Christ  undertake  any  thing  without  their  head, 
they  are  insensible,  smite  and  oppress  themselves  by  foolish 
laws. 

11.  Hence  we  see  that  the  so-called  spiritual  laws  con- 
cerning their  magnificence,  riches,  ranks,  titles,  are  a  cause 
of  all  insanity,  inasmuch  as  they  do  not  accord  with  the  head. 

12.  Thus  they  still  rage,  not  for  the  sake  of  the  head,  (for 
this  is  what  we  are  endeavoring  by  divine  grace  to  bring  for- 
ward,) but  because  we  will  not  permit  them  to  domineer  any 
longer,  but  are  resolved  to  hearken  to  the  head  only. 

13.  He  that  hearkens  to  him  only  learns  to  know  the  will 
of  God  purely  and  clearly,  and  is,  by  his  spirit,  drawn  into 
him,  and  transformed  into  him. 

14.  Therefore  all  Christians  should  apply  their  utmost 
diligence,  that  the  gospel  of  Christ  alone  be  preached  in  all 
places. 

15.  For  in  the  belief  of  it  is  our  salvation,  and  in  the  dis- 
belief of  it  our  damnation  :  for  in  it  all  truth  is  clear. 

16.  In  the  gospel  we  learn  that  doctrines  and  statutes  of 
men  profit  nothing  to  salvation. 

Of  the  pope. 

17.  Christ  is  an  only  eternal  supreme  pontiff:  whence  we 
conclude  that  those  who  profess  to  be  supreme  pontiffs  impugn 
the  honor  and  authority  of  Christ ;  yea,  reject  them. 

Of  the  mass. 

18.  Christ  offered  himself  once,  and  is  for  ever  a  perma- 
nent compensative  sacrifice  for  the  sins  of  all  believers : 
whence  we  conclude  that  the  mass  is  not  a  sacrifice,  but  a 
commemoration  of  a  sacrifice,  and  a  seal  of  the  redemption 
which  he  has  procured  for  us. 


GERMAN   REFORMED   CHURCH.  143 

Of  the  intercession  of  the  saints. 

19.  Christ  is  an  only  mediator  between  God  and  us. 

20.  God  will  give  us  all  things  in  his  name  :  whence  it 
follows  that  we  need  no  other  mediator  but  him  in  the  invisible 
world,  [ausserhalh  dieser  Zeit.) 

21.  When  we  pray  for  one  another  on  earth,  we  must  do  it 
so  that  we  expect  all  things  to  be  given  to  us  only  through 
Christ. 

Of  good  works. 

22.  Christ  is  our  righteousness  :  whence  we  conclude  that 
our  works  are  good  so  far  as  they  are  Christ's ;  but  as  far  as 
they  are  our  own,  are  not  right,  not  good. 

Of  the  property  of  clerics. 

23.  Christ  rejects  the  wealth  and  magnificence  of  this 
world :  whence  we  conclude  that  those  who  gather  riches  in 
his  name  grossly  dishonor  him,  when  they  make  him  a  cloak 
for  their  avarice  and  wantonness. 

Of  the  interdiction  of  meats. 

24.  Every  Christian  is  free  in  relation  to  things  which  God 
has  not  commanded,  and  may  at  all  times  eat  any  kind  of 
meats :  whence  we  learn  that  cheese-briefs  and  butter-briefs 
are  a  Romish  expedient. 

Of  holy-days  and  pilgrimages. 

25.  Times  and  places  are  subjected  to  the  Christian,  and 
not  the  Christian  to  them:  whence  we  learn  that  they  who 
would  bind  them  to  time  and  place  rob  Christians  of  their 
liberty. 

Of  cowls,  vestments,  badges. 

26.  Nothing  is  more  displeasing  to  God  than  hypocrisy: 
whence  we  learn  that  whatever  is  done  to  make  a  fair  show 
before  men  is  offensive  and  wicked  hypocrisy.  Here  cowls, 
badges,  tonsures,  &c.,  fall  away. 

Of  orders  and  sects. 

27.  All  Christians  are  brethren  of  Christ,    and   of  one 


144  HISTORY  OF  THE 

anotlier,  and  shall  not  pufF  any  one  on  earth  as  a  father. 
Here  orders,  sects,  factions,  &c.,  fall  away. 

Of  the  marriage  of  clerics. 

28.  Whatever  God  has  allowed,  or  has  not  forbidden,  is 
right :  whence  we  learn  that  marriage  is  proper  for  all  men. 

29  ;jc  *  *  *  *  * 

Of  vows  of  chastity  or  celibacy. 

30.  They,  who  make  vows  of  continency  childishly  or  fool- 
ishly, undertake  too  much :  whence  we  learn  that  those  who 
exact  them  act  wickedly  toward  pious  persons. 

Of  the  ban,  or  excommunication. 

31.  The  ban  cannot  be  imposed  by  an  individual,  but  by 
the  church,  that  is,  the  community  in  which  the  ban-worthy 
person  resides,  together  with  the  watchman,  that  is,  the 
pastor. 

32.  None  but  he  that  causes  public  scandal  can  be  sub- 
jected to  the  ban. 

Of  property  unjustly  acquired. 

33.  Unrighteous  property  should  not  be  given  to  temples, 
convents,  monks,  priests,  or  nuns,  but  to  the  needy,  if  it  can- 
not be  restored  to  the  right  owner. 

Of  government. 

34.  The  so-called  spiritual  power  has  no  support  for  its 
magnificence  from  the  doctrine  of  Christ. 

35.  But  the  secular  power  has  validity  and  confirmation 
from  both  the  doctrine  and  the  acts  of  Christ. 

36.  All  the  jurisdiction  which  the  so-called  spiritual  power 
claims  under  the  pretext  of  a  guardianship  of  justice,  belongs 
to  the  secular  rulers,  if  they  mean  to  be  Christians. 

37.  To  them  all  Christians,  without  exception,  owe  obedi- 
ence. 

38.  Provided  they  do  not  command  what  is  contrary  to  the 
will  of  God. 


GERMAN   REFORMED    CHURCH.  145 

39.  Therefore  all  their  laws  should  be  conformable  to  the 
divine  will ;  so  that  thej  protect  the  oppressed,  though  he 
does  not  complain. 

40.  They  alone  may  rightly  take  away  life,  and  they  alone 
may  punish  those  who  give  public  scandal. 

41.  When  they  rightly  minister  counsel  and  help  to  those 
for  whom  they  are  accountable  to  God,  these  also  are  bound 
to  contribute  to  their  support. 

42.  But  if  they  should  proceed  faithlessly,  and  regardless 
of  the  rule  of  Christ,  they  may,  with  the  help  of  God,  be 
deposed. 

43.  In  a  word,  his  dominion  is  the  best  and  firmest  of  all 
who  rules  with  God,  and  his  the  worst  and  most  unstable  who 
governs  according  to  his  caprice. 

Of  prayer. 

44.  True  worshippers  invoke  God  in  the  spirit  and  in  truth, 
without  any  brawling  before  men. 

45.  Hypocrites  do  their  works  that  they  may  be  seen  of 
men,  and  take  their  reward  also  in  the  present  life. 

46.  It  must  then  follow  that  church-singing  or  noise,  with- 
out devotion,  and  for  pay,  seeks  either  the  applause  of  men 
or  lucre. 

Of  scandal. 

47.  A  man  should  rather  submit  to  suffer  death,  than  scan- 
dalize a  Christian,  or  bring  him  to  disgrace. 

48.  One  that  would  be  scandalized  through  ignorance  or 
infirmity,  we  must  not  leave  in  his  weakness  and  infancy ;  but 
strengthen  him,  that  he  may  not  take  for  sin  what  is  not  sin. 

49.  A  greater  scandal  I  do  not  know,  than  to  forbid  priests 
to  have  wives,  and  then  for  money  to  grant  them  dispensations 
to  keep  harlots. 

Of  remission  of  sins. 

50.  God  alone  forgives  sins,  and  only  through  Christ  Jesus 
our  Lord. 

51.  He  that  concedes  this  to  a  creature,  takes  from  the 

N  19 


146  HISTORY   OF   THE 

honor  of  God,  and  gives  it  to  that  which  is  not  God — a  real 
idolatry. 

52.  Therefore  the  confession  which  is  made  to  a  priest,  or 
to  a  neighbor,  is  to  be  viewed  as  made  not  for  the  remission 

.  of  sins,  but  for  the  purpose  of  obtaining  counsel. 

53.  Penances  are  of  human  invention,  (except  the  ban,)  do 
not  take  away  sin,  and  are  imposed  as  a  terror  to  others. 

54.  Christ  has  borne  all  our  pain  and  labor.  Whoever  as- 
cribes to  penances  that  which  is  Christ's,  errs  and  dishonors 
God. 

55.  "Whoever  would  reserve  any  sin  from  being  remitted  to 
a  penitent,  would  not  be  in  the  place  of  God,  nor  of  Peter, 
but  of  the  devil. 

56.  He  that  remits  some  sins  only  for  money,  is  the  com- 
panion of  Simon  and  of  Balaam,  and  the  devil's  appropriate 
messenger. 

Of  purgatory. 

57.  The  true  Holy  Scripture  knows  of  no  purgatory  after 
this  life. 

58.  The  sentence  of  the  departed  is  known  only  to  God. 

59.  And  the  less  God  has  let  us  know  of  it,  the  less  should 
we  presume  to  know  about  it. 

60.  If  a  man,  solicitous  for  the  departed,  calls  upon  God  to 
show  them  favor,  I  do  not  reject  it ;  but  to  set  the  time  [for 
their  deliverance  from  purgatory,]  (seven  years  for  a  mortal 
sin,)  and  to  lie  for  the  sake  of  lucre,  is  not  human,  but 
devilish. 

Of  the  priesthood. 

61.  Of  the  character  [impressed  upon  a  priest  at  his  ordi- 
nation] which  the  priests  of  later  times  have  discovered,  the 
Scripture  knows  nothing ; 

62.  Neither  does  it  recognise  any  as  priests  who  do  not 
preach  the  word  of  God. 

63.  These  it  commands  us  to  honor,  that  is,  to  supply  with 
bodily  necessaries. 


GERMAN   REFORMED   CHURCH.  147 

Of  abolishing  abuses. 

64.  Those  who  come  to  the  knowledge  of  their  errors,  we 
must  not  hold  amenable  for  them,  but  let  them  end  their  days 
in  peace,  and  thereupon  order  the  pastoral  living  in  a  Christian 
manner,  [und  demnach  die  Widem  Christlich  verordnen.'] 

65.  Those  who  will  not  come  to  the  knowledge  of  them- 
selves, God  will  duly  take  in  hand ;  wherefore  no  bodily  vio- 
lence must  be  done  to  them,  unless  they  demean  themselves 
so  disorderly  that  it  cannot  be  avoided. 

66.  All  spiritual  superiors  must  quickly  let  themselves 
down,  and  set  up  only  the  cross  of  Christ,  not  their  money- 
chests,  or  they  Avill  come  to  ruin.  The  axe  is  laid  at  the  root 
of  the  tree. 

67.  If  any  one  be  desirous  to  have  conversation  with  me 
about  rents  or  tythes,  about  unbaptized  infants,  about  con- 
firmation, I  shall  be  willing  to  answer.  Let  no  one  here 
undertake  to  contend  by  sophistry  or  human  frivolities,  but 
let  him  come  and  take  the  Scripture  as  the  judge,  to  the  end 
that  the  truth  may  be  found,  or,  if  it  be  already  found,  as  I 
trust  it  is,  that  it  may  be  held  fast.  Amen.  May  God 
grant  it. 

These  propositions  do  not  exhibit  the  whole  of  Zwingle's 
theology,  but  embrace  only  those  doctrines  which  were  con- 
troverted and  made  the  basis  of  the  charge  of  heresy.  He 
held,  besides,  all  the  other  doctrines  of  the  theological  system 
about  which  there  was  no  dispute,  and  entertained,  also,  some 
private  opinions  which  he  had  not  yet  divulged :  for  example, 
his  thoughts  on  the  Lord's  supper,  and  on  the  nature  of  here- 
ditary depravity.  So  far  as  these  propositions  go,  with  the 
single  exception  of  the  first  part  of  the  sixtieth,  every  Protest- 
ant will  go  with  the  reformer ;  and,  considering  the  times  in 
which  he  lived,  none,  we  think,  will  withhold  his  admiration 
from  his  noble  freedom  of  thought,  the  liberality  of  his  senti- 
ments, and  the  scriptural  purity  of  his  doctrine. 

The  disputation  continued  only  one  day.  The  Papists, 
though  repeatedly  challenged  to  make  good  their  charge  of 


148  HISTORY   OP  THE 

heretical  pravity,  declmed  the  combat,  and  insisted  upon  the 
grounds  of  objection  ah'cady  noticed.  Eabcr  demanded  that 
the  disputation  should  be  abandoned,  because,  in  pursuance 
of  a  resolution  of  the  diet  of  Nuremberg,  a  general  council 
would  be  called  in  the  course  of  a  year,  or  the  dispute  might 
be  determined  by  the  universities.  Zwingle,  however,  would 
not  be  baffled  by  such  an  artifice.  He  insisted  that  no  gene- 
ral council  would  be  held  ;  that  the  prelates  would  never  sufi"er 
a  free  council  to  meet ;  that  there  was  no  necessity  of  going 
to  the  universities,  since  the  Scripture  itself  was  before  them ; 
that  there  were  then  in  Zurich  more  learned  men  who  could 
interpret  the  Scripture,  than  at  any  of  the  universities  to 
which  Faber  wished  the  dispute  to  be  referred ;  that  if  such 
learned  men  were  not  there,  he  hoped  that,  among  the  people 
who  were  present,  there  were,  at  least,  many  pious  persons, 
enlightened  by  the  Holy  Spirit,  who  could  judge  which  party 
interpreted  the  Scriptures  rightly,  or  perverted  them.  No 
reply  being  made  to  him,  the  burgomaster  requested  those  to 
speak  who  had  any  thing  to  object.  Zwingle  entreated  his 
adversaries  repeatedly  to  produce  their  proofs  of  heresy,  and 
threatened  to  expose  them  to  the  assembly  if  they  refused  to 
be  heard.  One  of  the  priests  from  the  country  observed,  that 
the  bishop  had  recently  published  an  order  commanding  the 
observance  of  the  traditiones  humanas,  or  human  traditions ; 
yet,  if  Zwingle's  propositions,  Avhich  were  contrary  to  those 
traditions,  could  not  be  refuted,  it  would  be  their  duty  to 
inculcate  them,  and  thus  to  violate  the  bishop's  order ;  and'in 
that  case,  the  pastor  of  Vislishacit,  Avho  was  imprisoned,  in 
pursuance  of  that  order,  for  denying  the  invocation  of  the 
saints,  was  suffering  unjustly.  Here  Faber,  forgetting  his 
prudent  reserve,  observed,  that  he  had  lately  conversed  with 
the  prisoner,  and  adduced  such  proof  from  the  Scriptures  for 
the  invocation  of  the  saints,. that  he  had  acknowledged  his 
error  and  renounced  it.  Zwingle,  instantly  taking  advantage 
of  this  commitment,  requested  him  to  point  out  the  places  in 
the  Holy  Scripture  by  which  the  priest  was  overcome ;  and 
thus  drew  Faber  into  the  dispute  in  which  the  latter  suffered 


GERMAN   REFORMED   CHURCH.  149 

80  humiliating  a  discomfiture.  lie  could,  of  course,  produce 
no  testimonies  from  the  Holy  Scriptures,  but  rested  his  defence 
upon  the  long-continued  practice  of  the  church,  upon  some 
passages  in  the  fathers,  the  litany,  and  similar  grounds ;  and 
his  entire  argument  was  quickly  demolished  by  the  reply  of 
his  antagonist.  Another  of  his  party,  Martin  Blantsch,  a 
divine  of  Tubingen,  followed  in  a  similar  strain,  and  was  as 
speedily  overthrown.  The  obligation  to  bring  all  their  proof 
from  the  Scripture,  which  formed  the  basis  of  the  disputation, 
so  narrowed  the  range  of  discussion,  and  so  cut  oiF  the  Papists 
from  their  resources,  that  they  had  little  to  say,  and  were, 
therefore,  necessarily  silent. 

In  the  afternoon  of  the  same  day,  the  council  being  reas- 
sembled, the  following  decree  was  read  to  the  assembly: 
"Whereas  the  bishop  was  requested  a  year  ago,  when  his 
deputies  were  in  Zurich,  to  assemble  the  clergy  of  his  diocese, 
and  to  consult  what  every  one  ought  to  do  for  the  peace  of 
his  conscience,  amidst  the  existing  strife  about  doctrines  of 
faith,  but  has  omitted  to  do  so,  the  government  of  Zurich  has 
therefore  been  necessitated,  by  the  increasing  dissension,  to 
appoint  this  disputation ;  and  whereas  those  who  had  charged 
Zwingle  Avith  heresy  have  not  attempted  to  prove  their  charge 
by  the  Holy  Scripture,  therefore  Zwingle  shall  go  on  fear- 
lessly to  proclaim  the  word  of  God,  and  all  the  ministers  of 
churches  under  their  jurisdiction  shall  preach  only  what  they 
can  prove  by  the  Scripture."* 

An  account  of  this  disputation  was  soon  afterward  pub- 
lished, by  Erhard  Hegenwald,  under  the  title,  Handlung  der 
Versammlung  der  lohlichen  Stadt  Zurich,  auf  den  29  Tag 
Jenners,  von  wegen  des  heiligen  JEvangeliums,  &c., — "  Trans- 
action of  the  meeting  in  the  praiseworthy  city  of  Zurich,  on 
the  29th  day  of  January,  on  account  of  the  holy  gospel,  &c." 
The  adversaries  of  the  Reformation  now  took  the  utmost  pains 
to  prevent  the  effects  of  this  triumphant  issue,  by  misrepresent- 

*  Hottinger,  &c.,  p.  105,  &c.,  p.  109,  &c.  Voegelin,  &c.,  p.  34,  &c. 
Gieseler,  &c.,  p.  151,  &c. 

m2 


150  HISTOKY   OF   THE 

ing  the  proceedings  of  the  meeting,  and  endeavoring  to  dis- 
credit the  authority  of  Hegenwald.  Faber  published  his 
account  of  the  same  meeting,  on  the  26th  of  March,  in  a  letter 
to  Theobald,  abbot  of  Liizel,  and  was  followed  by  Salat,  secre- 
tary to  the  city  of  Luzern,  and  these  again  by  Varillas  and 
Maimbourg,  whose  accounts,  says  Hottinger,  were  more  like 
romances  than  histories.  Faber  was  answered  by  some  wits 
of  Zurich,  in  a  ludicrous  writing,  entitled,  Das  Cfeier  rupfen, — 
"  Pluck  the  hawk,"  the  name  of  a  customary  sport  of  children, 
in  which  the  vicar-general  was  stripped  of  his  plumage  and 
exposed  to  public  derision  and  contempt.  To  vindicate  his 
propositions  against  the  injurious  perversions  that  were  circu- 
lated among  the  Papists,  and  to  meet  the  challenge  of  Faber, 
who  professed  a  readiness  to  reply  to  them  if  they  were  pub- 
lished with  their  Scriptural  proofs,  Zwingle  published,  in  July 
following,  his  work,  entitled,  Uslegen  und  Cfrund  der  Sehluss- 
reden  oder  Artiheln  dutch  Huldreich  Zwingli,  Zurch  uff  den 
29  Tag  Jenners  im  Jahr  1523  ussgayigen, — "  Exposition  and 
ground  of  the  propositions  or  articles  published  by  Ulric 
Zwingle  at  Zurich  on  the  29  day  of  January,  in  the  year 
1523."  This  work,  in  which  the  author  explains  and  defends 
his  sixty-seven  theses  more  fully  than  could  have  been  done 
in  a  public  discussion,  was  translated  into  Latin  by  Leo  Juda, 
because,  as  ^Iwingle  himself  says,  it  embraced  all  the  great 
controversies  which  were  then  everywhere  agitated.*  Faber 
replied,  in  1526,  to  six  of  Zwingle's  propositions ;  but  of  the 
character  of  his  reply  we  find  no  notice  in  our  authorities. 

Supported  by  the  council,  Zwingle  could  noAV  pursue  his 
ministry  without  hesitating  a  moment  about  proclaiming  the 
.  truth  which  the  Bible  taught  him ;  and,  supported  by  him, 
the  council  began  to  turn  a  watchful  eye  to  the  ministry  of 
the  gospel,  to  give  orders  to  the  clergy,  and  to  examine  into 
the  correspondence  of  their  teaching  Avith  the  Holy  ScripturCj 
which  was  now  acknowledged  as  the  only  standard  of  religious 


*  Reformations- Aim  ana  ch  fiir  1819.     Hottinger,  &c.,  p.  114.     Voegelin, 
&c.,  p.  35. 


GERMAN   llEFORMED   CHURCH.  151 

orthodoxy.  They  had  acquired,  they  scarcely  knew  how,  a 
kind  of  episcopal  authority,  exercising  as  they  did  the  powers 
which  had  been  possessed  by  the  bishop  of  the  diocese :  and 
'  such  vicars  could  scarcely  be  otherwise  than  acceptable  to  the 
reformer  amidst  the  difficulties  of  those  times,  when  the  com- 
motions in  the  religious  Avorld,  the  agitation  of  the  public 
mind,  and  the  cessation  of  former  ecclesiastical  authorities, 
made  it  necessary  that  a  new  controlling  power  should  exist 
somewhere,  to  maintain  order,  to  prcA^ent  excesses,  and  to 
punish  transgressions  in  the  church.  The  council  entered 
step  by  step  upon  the  ground  from  which  the  bishop  receded, 
and  performed  those  services  in  i-eforming  the  church  which 
he  neglected  or  refused,  and  thus  effectually,  as  well  as  unde- 
signedly, supplanted  him.*  It  must  not  be  supposed,  however, 
that  the  protection  of  the  civil  authority  placed  the  reformer 
beyond  the  reach  of  danger.  There  was  still  a  numerous 
party  of  Papists  throughout  the  canton  who  were  deeply 
mortified  by  his  recent  triumph,  and  desperate  men  were  not 
wanting  among  them,  who  were  prepared  for  any  measures  by 
which  they  might  rid  their  country  of  the  hated  innovator, 
if  the  opportunity  should  come  in  their  way ;  and  out  of 
Zurich,  the  authorities  of  the  popish  cantons  had  already 
resolved  to  arrest  him,  if  he  were  found  anywhere  within 
their  jurisdiction. f  He  was  aided  in  his  ministry,  at  this  time, 
by  two  assistants  of  his  OAvn  selection,  who  were  styled  dea- 
cons. His  co-pastors  in  the  city  were  Henry  Engelhard, 
pastor  of  the  church  of  Notre  Dame,  (Frau-Muenster,)  and 
Leo  Juda,  pastor  of  the  church  of  St.  Peter.  These  three 
were  all  the  pastorates  in  the  city  prior  to  the  year  1524, 
when  one  of  the  convent-churches  was  converted  into  the 
fourth  parish-church ;  but  a  preacher  was  attached  to  the 
hospital,  with  the  title  of  predicant ;  and  this  office  was  now 
filled  by  Caspar  Grossman,  or  Megander,  Zwingle's  devoted 
friend. 


*  Reformations-Almanach,  &c.,  p.  52. 
f  Hettinger,  &c.,  p.  131,  &c. 


152  HISTORY   OF   THE 

Leo  Juda  entered  upon  the  duties  of  liis  ministry  in  Febru- 
ary, 1523,  though  he  was  elected  by  the  congregation  in 
the  early  part  of  the  preceding  year.  He  was  a  native  of 
Rapper schiveir  in  Alsace,  where  his  father  was  a  respectable 
surgeon.  He  had  been  Zwingle's  fellow-student,  under  the 
tuition  of  Wittenbach,  in  Basel.  At  a  later  period  he  was  an 
assistant,  or  deacon,  in  one  of  the  churches  of  that  city,  and 
subsequently  held  the  situation  of  pastor  of  a  church  at  Pilt, 
in  his  native  country,  whence  he  was  called  to  become  Zwin- 
gle's successor  in  Einsiedeln.  He  was  a  man  of  little  stature, 
but  endowed  with  great  intellectual  qualities,  and  possessed  a 
truly  noble  heart.  To  these,  according  to  Hottinger,  we 
must  add  Oswald  Myconius,  the  learned  and  able  instructor 
of  youth,  who  had  been  among  the  most  active  in  promoting 
the  election  of  Zwingle  to  his  present  field  of  labor.  He  had 
left  his  situation  of  teacher  in  the  school  of  the  great-minster, 
and  accepted  a  similar  one  in  his  native  city,  Ziuzern  ;  but  his 
evangelical  sentiments,  the  freedom  of  his  conversation,  and 
his  active  participation  in  the  designs  of  the  reformer,  exposed 
him  to  so  much  opposition,  that,  finding  his  situation  unsafe, 
he  was  induced  to  accept  an  invitation  from  the  administrator 
of  the  convent  to  remove  to  Einsiedeln,  where  he  was  occupied 
with  instructing  the  monks  in  theology,  until,  in  1523,  he 
was  called  to  preside  over  the  school  of  Notre  Dame  in 
Zurich.  But,  according  to  Voegelin,  he  did  not  come  to 
Zurich  before  the  commencement  of  the  year  1525.* 

Under  the  protection  of  the  civil  authority,  and  aided  by 
his  enlightened  associates,  the  reformer  began  to  introduce 
changes  in  the  ceremonies  of  the  church.  After  suitably  pre- 
paring the  public  mind  by  instruction,  he  laid  aside  the  Latin 
form  of  baptism,  together  with  the  superstitious  ceremonies 
with  which  the  ordinance  was  burthened,  such  as  exorcism, 
the  use  of  salt  and  earth,  the  sign  of  the  cross,  and  chrism, 
or  anointing,  restored  the  sacrament  to  its  original  simplicity, 
and  used  the  German  language  in  its  administration.    In  this 

*  Hottinger,  &c.,  p.  99.  Voegelin,  &c.,  p.  53. 


GERMAN   REFORMED    CHURCH.  153 

fovm  it  was  first  administered  on  the  10th  of  August,  1523, 
in  tlie  church  of  Great-Minster,  before  a  crowded  audience, 
who  witnessed  the  novel  transaction  with  admiration  and  joy. 
He  next  directed  his  attention  to  the  canon  of  the  mass,  and 
published  an  essay  on  the  subject,  and,  a  month  afterwards,  a 
defence  of  this  essay,  which  was  followed  in  the  succeeding 
year  by  a  reply  to  the  exceptions  of  Hieronymus  Emser  :  and 
by  these  he  laid  the  foundation  for  the  changes  which  he  intro- 
duced in  the  celebration  of  the  Lord's  supper,  by  the  abolition 
of  the  mass  in  the  early  part  of  the  year  1525. 

About  this  time,  the  priests  began  to  set  aside  their  vow  of 
celibacy  and  to  enter  into  the  bonds  of  matrimony.  The  first 
who  set  the  example,  in  the  canton  of  Zurich^  was  William 
Roeubli,  pastor  of  Wytikon ;  and  others,  among  whom  was 
Leo  Juda,  followed  in  the  latter  part  of  1523.  Zwingle,  also, 
now  contracted  an  engagement,  which  he  consummated  on  the 
2d  of  April,  1524.  His  wife  was  Anna  Reinhard,  widow  of 
a  Swiss  nobleman,  John  Meyer  of  Knonau.  She  was  the 
mother  of  three  children,  two  daughters  and  one  son.  The 
son  was  Gerald  Meyer,  a  young  man  of  excellent  qualities, 
who  was  pursuing  his  studies  at  Basel,  under  the  tuition  of 
Zwingle's  early  friend,  Henry  Loretti  of  G-larus,  better  known 
by  his  surname  Glareanus,  which  he  assumed  from  the  place 
of  his  nativity.  To  this  very  promising  young  man  Zwingle 
addressed  the  treatise,  written  for  his  particular  use,  entitled, 
Hoiv  youth  should  he  educated  in  good  inorals  and  Christian 
disciiMne.  He  fell  at  Zwingle's  side,  sword  in  hand,  at  the 
fatal  battle  of  Cappcl,  in  1531.  The  law  of  celibacy  now  fell 
into  neglect  and  was  virtually  abrogated.  Some  time  elapsed, 
however,  before  this  change  ceased  to  attract  notice  by  its 
novelty,  and  to  raise  the  finger  of  scorn.*  ^ 

This  departure  from  the  laws  of  the  church  on  the  part  of 
the  priests  was  followed  by  another  of  equal  importance  in  the 
monastic  institution.  We  have  already  observed  that  the 
secular  priests  received  permission  from  the  council  to  officiate 


*  Voegelin,  &c.,  p.  35. 
20 


154  HISTORY   OF   THE 

in  the  chapels  of  the  monasteries,  -which  had  been  exclusively 
occupied  by  the  monks,  and  that  Zwingle  was  directed  to 
preach  occasionally  in  the  female  convent  of  Oetenhach,  into 
Avhich  the  Dominicans  alone  had  formerly  been  admitted.  In 
the  early  part  of  1523,  this  fraternity,  who  had  still  enjoyed 
free  access  to  the  convent  as  spiritual  fathers,  were,  for  some 
misconduct,  prohibited,  under  severe  penalties,  from  any 
farther  attendance,  and  the  religious  instruction  of  the  nuns 
was  committed  to  Leo  Juda ;  and  in  the  month  of  June,  a  part 
of  the  sisterhood,  who  had  a  year  before  asked  permission  to 
return  to  the  occupations  of  common  life,  as  more  favorable 
to  the  exercise  of  Christian  virtue,  urged  again  the  same 
request  to  the  council.  Their  petition  was  now  successful. 
The  government  granted  them  the  desired  permission  to  quit 
the  convent  with  whatever  effects  they  had  brought  into  it. 
Such  as  preferred  to  remain  were  suffered  to  do  so,  but  were 
required  to  lay  aside  the  habit  of  their  order,  and  to  attend 
the  ministry  of  their  appointed  pastor ;  and  the  same  order 
was,  on  the  26th  of  August,  extended  to  all  the  other  convents 
of  the  canton.*  The  exit  of  the  nuns  from  their  convents  was 
regarded  by  the  bigoted  Papists  with  horror,  and  the  govern- 
ments of  the  other  cantons  visited  it,  in  cases  occurring  within 
their  jurisdiction,  with  severe  penalties.  The  prioress  of  the 
convent  of  Hermetscliweil,  near  Bremgarten,  in  the  free  com- 
munes, having  left  her  convent  and  married  a  citizen  of  Brem- 
garten,  her  own  father,  Caspar  Goldlin,  a  citizen  of  Zurich, 
complained  to  the  diet  assembled  at  Baden,  and  by  their 
order  the  unhappy  pair  were  apprehended ;  the  woman  was 
remanded  to  the  convent,  where  she  was  held  in  duress,  and 
her  husband  Avas  imprisoned  and  finally  banished  from  the 
country,  t 

In  the  month  of  September,  of  the  same  year,  another  step 
of  like  importance  was  taken,  in  the  reformation  of  the  insti- 
tution of  St.  Felix  and  Regula.  It  was  so  called,  as  we  have 
already  observed  elsewhere,  after  two  Christian  martyrs,  who, 


*  Voegelin,  &c.,  p.  85.     Hottinger,  &c.,  p.  117,  129. 
f  Hottinger,  &c.,  p.  130. 


GERMAN    REFORMED    CHURCH.  155 

as  an  ancient  tradition  stated,  about  the  close  of  the  third 
century  came  into  the  regions  of  Glarus  and  Zurich,  where 
they  first  proclaimed  the  gospel,  and  were  put  to  death  by 
the  inhabitants.  Their  pious  self-devotion  imparted  a  sacred- 
ness  to  the  spot  where  they  labored  and  suffered,  and  the 
piety  of  succeeding  ages  sought  to  perpetuate  their  memory, 
by  erecting  monuments  to  their  honor,  or  enriching  the  places 
consecrated  to  their  names  with  liberal  gifts.  The  Great- 
Minster,  erected  by  Charlemagne,  was  dedicated  to  them,  and 
the  rich  foundation  attached  to  it  bore  their  names.  Succeed- 
ing emperors  and  popes  enlarged  the  privileges  of  the  chapter 
and  added  to  its  revenues,  and,  long  before  the  Reformation, 
the  spirit  of  foregoing  ages  had  raised  it  to  an  enviable  dis- 
tinction. It  was  invested  with  the  power  of  self-government 
in  all  cases,  Avas  wholly  independent  of  the  civil  authorities  of 
the  state,  and  possessed  also  the  right  of  appointment  to  many 
of  the  churches.  It  collected  tythes  and  ground-rents  from 
considerable  districts,  received  the  rents  of  estates  which  had 
been  granted  by  benevolent  donors,  obtained  new  legacies 
from  dying  sinners  who  were  desirous  of  purchasing  heaven 
by  appropriating  a  portion  of  their  earthly  goods  to  religious 
uses,  exacted  fees  from  the  people  for  every  kind  of  clerical 
ministrations,  and  made  every  thing,  to  which  they  could  give 
the  requisite  aspect,  a  source  of  revenue  that  increased  the 
streams  of  wealth  that  flowed  into  their  treasury. 

The  chapter  consisted  of  twenty-four  canons,  to  whom  were 
added  thirty-six  chaplains.  All  these  lived  upon  the  revenues 
of  the  foundation,  but  performed  no  other  service  than  to  sing 
in  the  choir  during  canonical  hours.  The  whole  labor  of 
preaching  and  of  the  care  of  souls  was  left  to  the  one  pastor, 
caWed  Leut-priester,  i.  e.  people's  priest,  and  his  two  assistants 
or  deacons.  The  foundation  was  so  distributed,  and  so  managed, 
as  to  support  the  canons  and  their  chaplains,  and  was  of  no 
other  use  whatever.  The  incumbents,  in  general,  spent  their 
time  in  a  voluptuous  indolence,  and  were  as  ignorant  as  they 
were  idle  and  useless.  To  this  cause  was  owing  the  wretched 
condition  of  the  churches  and  schools.     The  schools  were 


156  HISTORY   OF   THE 

under  their  immediate  care,  but,  knowing  nothing  themselves, 
they  neither  had  the  concern  nor  possessed  the  ability  to  put 
them  into  the  required  organization.  From  the  miserable 
condition  of  the  schools,  the  commonwealth  suifcred  the  most 
serious  injury.  Parents  were  obliged  to  let  their  children 
grow  up  in  ignorance,  or  to  send  them  abroad  for  an  education 
at  an  expense  which  few  were  able  to  bear.  Myconius,  who 
had  presided  over  the  school  at  the  Great-Minster  some  time 
before  Zwingle's  settlement  in  Zurich,  had  done  something, 
indeed,  to  create  a  better  state  of  things,  but  he  appears  to 
have  stood  alone.  When  light  began  to  dawn  upon  the  com- 
munity, these  gross  abuses  attracted  notice,  and  created  mur- 
murs which  the  canons  soon  perceived  that  they  durst  not 
despise,  and  the  justice  of  which  most  of  them  were  constrained 
to  acknowledge.  Zwingle  did  not  omit  to  urge  upon  his  col- 
leagues the  necessity  of  a  change,  and  they  were,  at  length, 
persuaded  by  his  arguments,  and  the  increasing  discontent  of 
the  people,  to  come  forward  themselves  with  a  proposition  for 
a  thorough  reform.  They  appointed  a  commission,  consisting 
of  their  provost  and  three  canons,  of  whom  Zwingle  was  one, 
to  unite  with  a  similar  commission  to  be  appointed  by  the 
council,  in  preparing  such  a  plan  of  reformation  as  would,  in 
the  judgment  of  both,  be  most  pleasing  to  God.  The  council 
gladly  accepted  their  proposal,  and  the  joint  commission 
having  drawn  up  articles  of  reformation,  they  were  submitted 
to  both  bodies  and  by  them  approved.  Some  of  the  canons, 
indeed,  were  opposed  to  any  changes,  and  urged,  for  the  main- 
tenance of  the  existing  state  of  things,  the  plea  of  antiquity, 
and  the  rights  of  prescription ;  but  their  more  enlightened 
and  more  virtuous,  or,  at  least,  more  prudent  brethren, 
silenced  them  by  a  decisive  vote.  The  plan  of  reformation 
embraced  the  following  items : 

"  That  the  parishioners,  who  paid  tithes  and  ground-rents 
to  the  chapter,  should  not  in  future  be  burdened  with  charges 
for  baptisms  and  other  pastoral  functions,  for  a  grave  in  con- 
secrated ground,  for  tolling  bells  at  the  minster,  for  a  grave- 
stone, and  burning  tapers  for  the  dead,  which  the  sexton  fur- 


GERMAN  REFORMED   CnURCH.  157 

nished  at  tlieir  expense,  without  asking  their  consent ;  neither 
should  legacies  be  required  from  the  dying  for  the  benefit  of 

their  souls. 

"  That  the  pastor  of  the  minster  and  his  assistants  should 
thereafter  be  supported  by  the  funds  of  the  institution ;  and 
they  should  be  elected  by  the  chapter  in  tjie  presence  of  a 
deputation  from  the  council. 

"  That,  as  a  large  number  of  unemployed  clerics  were  liv- 
ing upon  the  funds  of  the  institution,  the  number  should  be 
reduced,  by  omitting  to  elect  others  in  the  place  of  those  who 
died,  until  no  more  should  remain  than  were  necessary  for  the 
ministrations  of  the  word  of  God  and  other  Christian  and  use- 
ful objects  ;  and  the  income  of  the  vacant  benefice  should  be 
applied  to  such  other  Christian  and  beneficial  uses  as  might 
be  then  determined. 

"  That  men  of  sound  learning,  genius,  and  correct  morals 
should  be  appointed  to  give  instruction,  without  charge,  in  the 
Holy  Scriptures,  and  in  the  Hebrew,  Greek,  and  Latin  lan- 
guage, the  knowledge  of  which  was  deemed  necessary  to  the 
right  understanding  of  the  sacred  oracles. 

"  That  the  institution  should  provide  a  worthy,  learned,  and 
discreet  priesthood  ;*  so  that  it  might  always  furnish  worthy 
men,  skilled  in  the  divine  writings  and  in  the  Christian  life,  who 
could  be  safely  placed  over  the  pious  subjects  of  the  city  and 
country,  as  curators  of  souls,  pastors,  and  preachers. 

"  That  a  schoolmaster  should  be  more  liberally  compensated 
than  formerly,  to  the  end  that  he  might  diligently  j^repare  the 
youth  for  the  before-mentioned  higher  studies.  These  they 
should  teach  without  charge,  so  that  the  cheapness  as  well  as 
the  superiority  of  the  school  might  present  a  motive  to  parents 
to  have  their  sons  educated  at  home,  instead  of  sending  them 
abroad. 

"  That,  as  the  chapter  and  the  council  had  the  appointment 


*  This  article  was  understood  to  vest  the  chapter  with  power  to  examine, 
license,  and  ordain  candidates  for  the  ministry,  which  formerly  belonged 
to  the  bishop. 
0 


158  HISTORY   OF  THE 

of  pastors  to  churches  in  the  city  and  the  country,  every  one 
who  enjoyed  a  benefice  should  be  willing,  if  not  disqualified  by 
age  and  infirmity,  to  be  placed  in  a  pastoral  care,  during  their 
pleasure,  where  the  appointing  party  should  provide  for  his 
support,  and  he  should  there  preside,  as  a  faithful  shepherd, 
over  the  souls  coinmitted  to  his  care. 

"  That  the  affiliated  churches  of  the  minster  should  be  sup- 
plied with  suitable  priests,  who  should  be  sent  to  them  from 
the  chapter,  without  charge. 

"  That  when  the  number  should  be  reached,  which  it  might 
be  determined  to  retain,  the  distinction  of  canons  and  chap- 
lains should  cease,  and  all  be  comprised  under  one  designation. 

"  That  those  who  were  appointed  to  a  prebend,  professorship, 
or  other  office,  should  hold  their  places  only  during  good  be- 
haviour. 

"  That,  when  the  above  benefices,  professorships,  and  other 
offices  shall  have  been  suitably  provided  for,  the  residue  of  the 
tithes  and  rents  should  be  given  to  the  poor  in  the  hospital, 
and  to  needy  families  ;  and  for  the  right  management  of  this 
fund  a  commission  or  board  should  be  appointed,  to  consist  of 
two  persons  from  each  body. 

"  That  any  one  who  should  in  future  be  appointed  to  a 
benefice,  should  be  required  to  swear  to  the  faithful  obser- 
vance of  the  foregoing  rules."* 

This  plan  of  reformation,  it  will  be  perceived,  had  for  its 
object  the  culture  and  difi'usion  of  useful  learning,  the  supply 
of  the  churches  of  the  canton  with  a  well-qualified  ministry, 
and  the  relief  of  the  suffering  poor.  This  noble  design  was  a 
fruit  of  the  unrestricted  preaching  of  the  gospel,  and  was 
itself  a  beautiful  illustration  of  the  benevolence  of  the  doc- 
trine of  Christ,  as  well  as  of  its  power  over  the  hearts  of  men. 

The  reformers  have  done  themselves  the  highest  honor  by 
their  untiring  exertions  to  promote  education,  and  to  improve 
the  intellectual  as  well  as  the  moral  character  of  the  commu- 


*  Fueslin's  Beitrage  zur  Kirch,  und  Reform.  Gesch.  des  Scliweitzerlands, 
vol.  i.  pp.  1-24.     Reformations-Almanach  fur  1819. 


GERMAN    REFORMED    CHURCH.  159 

nity.  Thej  were  indebted  for  their  own  attainments,  next  to 
Divine  gi-ace,  to  the  recent  revival  of  learning  in  Europe :  and 
if  all  their  pains  to  effect  a  reformation  of  religion  were  not  to 
be  thrown  away,  it  was  necessary  that  they  should  endeavor 
to  put  the  means,  by  which  they  themselves  had  arrived  at 
such  eminence,  as  far  as  possible,  within  every  one's  reach. 
Luther  urged  this  great  cause  in  G-ermany  with  as  much  zeal 
as  did  Zwingle  in  Switzerland.  In  1524,  he  published  his 
work,  An  die  Rathsherren  oiler  Stddte  in  Deutschland,  dass 
sie  OhristUehe  Schulen  aufrichten  soUen, — "To  the  counsellors 
of  all  the  cities  in  Germany,  that  they  should  erect  Christian 
schools ;"  and  four  years  earlier  he  had  pressed  upon  the 
nobility  of  Germany  the  indispensable  necessity  of  reforming 
the  universities  of  the  country,  in  his  work,  An  den  Christ- 
lichen  Adel  Beutseldands,  von  des  Christlichen  Standes  Bes- 
serung.  Zwingle  found  no  university  in  Zurich :  there  was 
nothing  of  this  kind  to  pull  down,  but  every  thing  to  build  up : 
nothing  to  be  reformed,  but  something  to  be  created.  His 
concern  was  to  apply  the  revenues  of  the  abused  foundation  in 
the  minster,  agreeably  to  the  design  of  its  founder,  to  the  sup- 
port of  men  who  were  well  qualified  for  the  office  of  teachers 
in  the  schools  and  the  churches.  His  view  was  especially 
directed  to  theology  and  to  the  ancient  languages,  which  he 
justly  considered  of  vital  importance  to  the  study  of  the 
sacred  writings.  He  had  read  the  classics  with  profit  as  well 
as  with  pleasure :  they  had  formed  his  taste,  improved  his 
judgment,  furnished  his  memory  with  the  stores  of  ancient 
learning,  and  had  thus  prepared  his  mind  for  a  more  profitable 
study  of  the  Holy  Scriptures  and  of  Christian  theology  ;  and 
he  therefore  made  them  the  basis  of  an  education  in  the 
literary  and  theological  institution  which  he  contemplated. 
His  design,  however,  could  not  be  carried  into  effect  until 
some  years  later,  when  the  funds  of  the  foundation  came  into 
the  hands  of  the  council. 

Before  these  occurrences,  the  bishop  of  Constance  had  sent 
to  Zurich,  as  well  as  to  the  other  confederates,  a  copy  of  the 
mandate  of  the  emperor,  Charles  V.,   against  the  so-called 


160  HISTORY   OP   THE 

Lutheran  doctrine,  together  with  an  episcopal  missive  request- 
ing its  publication  by  the  civil  authorities.  The  government 
of  this  canton  declined  a  compliance  with  his  request,  and 
informed  the  bishop  that  the  gospel  was  rightly  preached  in 
their  territories ;  but  if  he  were  of  a  different  opinion,  they 
requested  him  to  point  out  the  heretical  doctrines. 

In  the  mean  time,  Zwingle  and  his  associates  exposed  the 
superstitions  of  the  mass,  and  the  idolatrous  use  of  images, 
which  abounded  in  all  the  churches,  and  were  met  with  in  the 
streets  and  highways,  where  they  received  the  adorations  of 
the  people,  and  had,  in  a  great  measure,  usurped  the  place 
of  the  Deity  in  their  affections.  Their  hearers  were  thus 
taught  to  see  both  the  absurdity  and  the  sinfulness  of  these 
abuses,  and  wished  earnestly  for  their  speedy  removal,  and  the 
more  zealous  among  them  grew  impatient  of  the  tardiness  of 
the  council,  which  still  suffered  the  annoyance  to  remain.  Some 
of  these,  who  thought  the  government  too  slow,  or  considered 
the  case  as  one  in  which  every  friend  of  truth  might  act  with- 
out waiting  for  their  license,  began  to  lay  violent  hands  upon 
the  objects  of  superstition,  by  throwing  down  a  large  cross, 
that  stood  at  a  place  called  Stadelhofen,  outside  of  the  city, 
where  it  was  honored  with  religious  reverence  by  those  who 
passed  by.  This  imprudent  forwardness  created  a  great  sen- 
sation in  the  public  mind.  The  zealous  Papists  demanded 
that  the  authors  of  the  outrage  should  be  capitally  punished. 
The  preachers  of  the  city  and  their  followers,  on  the  contrary, 
while  they  admitted  that  the  commission  of  the  act  without 
authority  was  a  misdemeanor,  insisted  that  the  act  itself  was 
right,  and  could  not  be  justly  punished  with  death.  The 
government,  regarding  the  act  as  illegal,  and  the  authors  of  it 
as  disturbers  of  the  peace,  ordered  them  to  be  imprisoned ; 
but,  unwilling  to  punish  them  beyond  their  demerit  on  the  one 
hand,  and  desirous  to  avoid  unnecessary  offence  to  the  Papists 
on  the  other,  they  delayed  farther  proceedings,  and,  in  the 
mean  time,  sought  to  bring  the  community,  as  well  as  them- 
selves, to  some  certain  conclusion  respecting  images  and  the 
lawfulness  of  putting  them  away.     For  this  purpose,  and  to 


GEBMAN    REFORMED    CHURCH.  161 

settle  the  question  also  respecting  the  mass,  -which  had  been 
Ion"-  and  violently  agitated  between  the  parties,  they  appointed  , 
another  public  disputation,  to  be  held  in  Zurich^  on  the  26th 
of  October,  of  the  same  year.  As  their  object  was  to  have  a 
fair  discussion  and  a  full  development  of  the  truth,  they 
commanded  the  divines  and  learned  men  of  both  parties  to  be 
present,  and  to  produce  their  evidence  from  the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures, which  were  alone  admitted  to  be  the  standard  of  religious 
truth.  An  invitation  to  this  meeting  was  given  also  to  foreign 
divines  and  men  of  learning,  who  might  choose  to  be  present, 
and  to  participate  in  the  discussions ;  the  bishops  of  Con- 
stance^ Basel,  and  Coire,  and  the  professors  of  the  university 
of  Basel,  were  especially  invited ;  and  the  governments  of 
the  other  twelve  cantons  were  requested  to  send  the  most 
learned  of  their  divines.  The  bishops  paid  no  attention  to 
the  invitation ;  and  of  the  confederates,  only  the  canton  of 
Schaffhausen  and  the  city  of  St.  Gall  were  represented.  The 
discussions  were  opened  on  the  day  appointed,  in  the  presence 
of  about  nine  hundred  persons,  of  whom  three  hundred  and  fifty 
were  priests,  and  continued  three  days.  Three  oflBcers  presided 
for  the  maintenance  of  order.  At  the  close  of  each  address 
the  presiding  officers  invited  a  reply.  If  none  rose  to  speak, 
they  asked  the  opinion  of  those  of  the  opposite  party  indivi- 
dually, and  the  replies  which  were  thus  elicited  were  answered 
by  one  of  the  reformers.  The  objection  being  made  in  this, 
as  in  the  former  instance,  that  doctrines  of  faith  could  not  be 
lawfully  discussed  in  such  an  assembly,  nor  by  any  other  than 
the  church  in  a  general  council,  Zwingle  argued  that,  as  the 
church  was  an  assembly  of  believers,  the  present  assembly 
was  a  church,  whereas  a  council  composed  of  none  but  eccle- 
siastics was  not  a  church.  Conrad  Hoffman,  a  canon  of 
Zurich,  appealed  for  his  opinion  to  the  university  of  Heidel- 
herg,  but  was  reminded  that  he  must  appeal  to  the  Scriptures. 
Leo  Juda  opened  the  debates,  by  showing  from  the  Old  Testa 
ment  the  unlawfulness  of  making  and  worshipping  images. 
On  tlie  other  side,  the  defence  maintained  that  the  Scriptures 
forbade  only  the  images  of  heathens,  not  those  of  Christians, 
0  I  -' 


162  HISTORY   OF   THE 

and  urged  the  examples  of  the  brazen  serpent,  the  cherubim, 
(fee.,  and  the  utility  of  images  as  helps  to  weak  minds.  To 
these  arguments  Leo  replied.  Ko  farther  defence  was  made. 
The  priests  of  the  canton  abandoned  the  images,  and  the 
prior  of  the  Augustinians  remarked  that,  if  the  decretals  of 
the  popes  were  not  admitted  as  evidence,  he  had  nothing  to 
say.* 

On  the  next  day,  October  27,  Zwingle  spoke  on  the  subject 
of  the  mass,  and  produced  his  proofs  from  the  Holy  Scriptures 
to  show,  first,  that  the  mass  is  not  a  sacrifice  for  sin  ;  and, 
secondhj,  that  it  was  not  celebrated  by  the  church  of  Rome 
agreeably  to  Christ's  institution.  At  the  close  of  his  speech, 
the  prelates  and  other  clergy,  who  were  in  attendance,  were 
severally  asked  to  give  their  opinions.  The  provost  of  the 
Great-Minster  attempted  to  sustain  the  doctrine  of  the  church 
by  an  alleged  epistle  of  Clement  to  James,  the  Lord's  brother ; 
and  a  priest  of  jSchaffhaiisen  referred  for  the  same  purpose  to 
Genesis  xiv.  18,  and  Malachi  i.  11 ;  all  which  were  easily 
answered.  Of  the  rest,  there  was  none  who  would  undertake 
a  defence  on  scriptural  grounds.  The  reformers,  therefore, 
demanded  that  both  the  mass  and  the  images  be  abolished, 
and  the  worship  of  God  restored  to  its  original  simplicity  and 
purity.  But  as  such  a  measure  would  affect  the  established 
religion  in  a  vital  part,  and  might  involve  the  peace  of  the 
confederacy,  the  council,  who  themselves  were  not  unanimous, 
were  slow  to  yield  to  their  convictions,  and  preferred  a  farther 
delay ;  and  one  of  the  zealous  friends  of  reformation,  Erasmus 
Schmid,  commander  of  KuesnaeJit,  advised  to  proceed  with 
great  caution  and  forbearance,  on  account  of  the  weakness 
and  ignorance  of  many,  especially  with  regard  to  images, 
since,  as  he  thought,  many  would  rather  drop  the  mass,  yea 
.Jesus  Christ  himself,  than  the  invocation  of  the  saints  and 
their  venerated  images ;  such,  indeed,  was  their  blindness, 
that  they  called  the  images  of  Christ  and  of  Mary  the  Lord 
God  and  the  holy  virgin. f 

*  Hottinger,  &c.,  p.  136,  &c.  f  Ibid.  p.  138,  &c. 


GERMAN    REFORMED    CHURCH.  163 

The  acts  of  this  meeting  -were  soon  afterwards  published  by 
Ludwig  Hezer,  under  the  title,  Acta  oder  Geselnchte  ivle  en 
auf  dem  G-espraclt,  des  26,  27,  2Sten  Tages  Weinmonats  in 
der  Ohristlichen  Stadt  Zurich  ergangen, — "  Acts  or  History 
of  the  Proceedings  at  the  Conference  of  the  26th,  27th,  28th 
days  of  October,  in  the  Christian  city  of  Zurich." 

The  immediate  consequence  of  the  disputation  was,  that  the 
council,  convinced  of  the  lawfulness  of  putting  away  the  offen- 
sive images,  liberated  the  prisoners,  after  a  confinement  of 
six  weeks ;  but,  as  an  evidence  of  their  disapprobation  of  all 
unauthorized  violence,  and  of  their  determination  to  preserve 
the  order  and  peace  of  the  community,  they  inflicted  upon  the 
leader  in  the  late  disturbance,  Nicolas  Hettinger,  a  banish- 
ment of  two  years  from  the  city  and  canton  of  Zurich.  Hot- 
tinger,  who  was  a  pious  and  intelligent  man,  and  whose  only 
fault  was  an  excess  of  well-meant  zeal,  bore  this  severe  pu- 
nishment without  resentment  or  discontent.  He  went  into  the 
neighbouring  county  of  Baden,  where  he  pursued  his  business, 
being  a  shoemaker  by  trade.  Here  he  suffered  much  annoy- 
ance from  bigoted  Papists,  to  whom  the  cause  of  his  exile  was 
known.  He  continued,  nevertheless,  in  a  fearless  profession 
of  the  evangelical  doctrines,  exposed  the  errors  of  popery,  and 
generously  vindicated,  not  the  reformers  only,  but  the  rulers 
of  his  country,  by  whom  he  was  so  hardly  dealt  with.  This 
freedom  procured  his  arrest  early  in  the  following  year.  In 
the  latter  part  of  March,  1524,  the  governor  of  Baden  deli- 
vered him  to  a  diet  assembled  at  Luzern,*  by  whom  he  was 
condemned  to  lose  his  head.  He  received  this  sentence  with- 
out alarm,  and  suffered  the  execution  with  Christian  fortitude. 
At  the  scaffold  he  reminded  the  confederates  of  the  uniform 
fidelity  of  the  canton  of  Zurich  to  all  its  engagements  with 
them,  entreated  them  not  to  adopt  any  rash  measures  against 
it,  and  protested  his  conviction  of  the  sincerity  of  its  rulers, 


*  This  was  a  diet  of  the  seven  cantons  to  which  the  sovereignty  of  the 
county  of  Baden  belonged,  and  who  exercised  supreme  civil  and  criminal 
jurisdiction  in  it.     Of  these,  Zurich  was  one.     All  the  rest  were  Papistic. 


164  HISTORY   OF   THE 

and  of  their  attachment  to  truth  and  rectitude  in  all  their 
proceedings.  His  last  worcjs  were,  "  Into  thy  hands  I  com- 
mend my  soul,  0 !  my  Lord  and  Redeemer,  Jesus  Christ ! 
Have  mercy  on  me,  and  receive  me  unto  thyself."  Thus  died 
the  first  martyr  of  the  Reformed  church.  The  government 
of  Zurich  interceded  in  his  behalf;  but  the  diet  was  inexorable, 
and  the  injured  canton  was  not  in  a  condition  to  do  more  than 
intercede  for  the  life  of  her  exiled  citizen.* 

At  the  late  disputation  the  priests  of  the  country  betrayed 
such  a  lamentable  ignorance  of  scriptural  theology,  that,  by 
direction  of  the  council,  Zwingle  wrote  an  elementary  treatise 
on  the  subject  for  their  use,  which  was  distributed  among  them, 
and  rendered  excellent  service  both  to  them  and  to  the  reforma- 
tion of  the  canton.  It  was  published  under  the  title,  Eine 
hurze  und  Christliche  Mnleitung,  die  ein  ehrsamer  Bath  der 
Stadt  Zurich  ihren  Seelsorgern,  in  ihren  Stitdten  und  Cfehie- 
ten  wohnhaft,  zugesendet  hat,  damit  sie  die  evangelische  Lehr 
und  Wahrheit  einhellig  filrohin  verhUndigeii, — "  A  brief  and 
Christian  introduction,  which  the  honorable  council  of  the 
city  of  Zurich  has  sent  to  her  curators  of  souls,  residing  in 
her  towns  and  territories,  to  the  end  that  they  may  in  future 
harmoniously  preach  the  evangelical  doctrine  and  truth."  In 
this  treatise,  the  author  makes  repentance  and  faith  the  sum 
of  the  evangelical  doctrines.  He  explains  what  sin  is,  and 
how  it  is  known  ;  the  demands  of  the  law ;  the  method  of 
salvation  without  works,  by  the  free  grace  of  God,  through 
faith  in  Christ ;  how  believers  die  unto  the  law ;  the  nature 
of  Christian  liberty,  which  does  not  release  us  from  the  obli- 
gation to  a  holy  life,  nor  from  the  duty  of  obedience  to  go- 
vernment ;  and,  finally,  the  mass  and  image-worship.  In  this 
work  he  propounded  his  doctrine  of  what  theological  systems 
have  termed  original  sin  ;  which  he  considered  an  inherent 
depravity  that  disqualifies  man,  prior  to  his  regeneration,  for 
holy  activity,  and  is  the  fountain  of  sin,  but  does  not  in  itself 
constitute  guilt  and  sin. 


*  Hottinger,  &c.,  p.  140,  153. 


GERMAN   REFORMED    CHURCH.  165 

In  consequence  of  the  issue  of  the  recent  disputation,  the 
assistants  and  the  chaplains  of  the  Great-Minster  refused  any 
longer  to  read  masses,  while  others  of  the  priesthood  con- 
tinued to  be  zealous  defenders  of  that  superstitious  service. 
The  matter  was  brought  by  the  provost  and  chapter  before 
the  council,  who  requested  the  opinion  of  the  city  pastors  on 
the  subject ;  and,  in  pursuance  of  their  advice,  a  decree  was 
passed,  directing  that  every  priest  should  act  in  the  case 
agreeably  to  his  own  convictions,  either  celebrating  mass,  or 
omitting  it,  and  none  should  reproach  another  for  a  difference 
of  opinion  and  practice,  but  all  should  live  together  in  harmony 
and  peace.  It  was  further  resolved  to  transmit  a  copy  of  this 
decree,  together  with  a  copy  of  the  printed  "  Introduction," 
to  each  of  the  bishops  of  Constance,  Basel,  and  Qoire,  to  the 
university  of  Basel,  and  to  each  of  the  cantons,  with  a  request 
that,  if  they  could  prove  them  erroneous  by  scriptural  evidence, 
they  should  do  so,  and  kindly  send  their  answer  to  the  coun- 
cil of  Zurich.  And,  finally,  it  was  resolved  to  delay  ulterior 
action  until  answers  should  be  received  from  these  authorities, 
and  until  Whitsuntide  of  the  ensuing  year.* 

Some  of  the  canons  and  priests  of  Zurich  having  determined 
to  sustain  the  old  forms  of  worship,  which,  they  alleged,  had 
not  been  satisfactorily  confuted,  all  the  priests  of  the  city  were 
required  to  appear  before  the  council,  on  the  28th  of  December, 
and  to  produce  whatever  scriptural  evidence  they  possessed 
for  their  opinion.  When  the  priests  assembled,  and  the  ques- 
tion was  asked,  what  they  had  to  object  to  the  argument  of 
the  reformers  at  the  late  disputation,  Conrad  Hoffman  an- 
swered, that  he  esteemed  the  mass,  the  images,  and  the  invo- 
cation of  the  saints  right.  If  he  were  wrong,  he  would  accept 
better  information  from  learned  men,  but  not  from  those  who 
were  infected  with  the  Lutheran  heresy.  If  the  council  would 
appoint  a  committee  of  their  own  body,  together  with  their 
learned  men,  to  hear  him,  he  would  exhibit  himself  in  public. 
But  he  would  dispute  only  in  the  presence  of  the  bishop  of 

*  Hottinger,  &c.,  p.  149. 


166  HISTORY   OF   THE 

Constance,  Coire,  or  Basel,  or  before  the  university  of  Paris, 
Oologn,  &c.,  not  in  Zurich,  where  a  heretical  faith  prevailed. 
The  council,  who  were  disposed  to  treat  him  and  his  party 
with  all  tenderness,  thereupon  appointed  a  commission,  con- 
sisting of  eight  members  of  their  body,  the  abbot  of  Cappel, 
the  commander  of  K'dsnacht,  the  provosts  of  Great-Minster 
and  JEmbrach,  and  two  canons  of  the  Minster,  and  directed 
that  Zwingle  and  the  two  other  pastors,  Juda  and  Engelhard, 
should  dispute  in  their  presence  with  Hoffman  and  his  four 
adherents,  Battman,  Koch,  Graff,  and  Nuscheler ;  but,  having 
little  confidence  either  in  the  bishops  or  the  universities  in 
such  a  case,  they  resolved  that  the  meeting  should  be  held  in 
Zurich.  It  took  place  on  the  14th  of  January,  1524.  Hoff- 
man delivered  to  the  commission  a  written  argument,  to  which 
Zwingle  replied.  When  he  was  asked  for  his  answer,  he  de- 
clined all  debate,  denied  the  competency  of  the  arbitrators, 
and  refused  to  dispute  at  all  with  Zwingle,  whom  he  repre- 
sented as  pertinacious  and  headstrong  in  his  opinions.  The 
rest  of  his  party  made  a  feeble  defence,  or  none  at  all.  The 
commission,  consequently,  reported  favorably  to  the  reformers, 
and  the  council  decreed.  That  the  five  discontented  priests, 
inasmuch  as  they  had  proved  nothing  against  the  doctrines 
of  Zwingle,  should  appear  before  the  council  and  be  informed 
by  them,  that  they  must  in  future  submit  quietly  to  the  man- 
dates of  government,  and  undertake  nothing  against  them, 
either  in  public  or  in  private,  although  for  themselves  they 
might  believe  what  they  pleased.* 

During  this  and  the  following  year,  the  other  confederates 
were  much  occupied  with  diets,  embassies,  and  correspondence 
■  for  the  maintenance  of  the  papal  religion :  all,  as  Hottinger 
says,  from  the  instigation  of  the  clergy,  who  spared  no  pains 
to  render  Zurich  odious  by  their  calumnies.  A  diet,  assem- 
bled at  Luzern,  on  the  26th  of  January,  1524,  published  a 
manifest,  by  which  they  solemnly  pledged  themselves,  and 
commanded  others,  to  observe  nineteen  articles,  designed,  as 


*  Hottinger,  &c.,  p.  HU- 


GERMAN    REFORMED    CHURCH.  167 

they  said,  "  foi-  the  honor  of  God,  the  holy  virgin,  all  the 
saints,  and  the  common  Christian  faith.''  Among  these  articles 
arc  the  following :  "No  one  shall  despise  or  hinder  the  word 
of  God,  as  it  is  preached  by  our  pastors,  and  has  been  preached 
more  than  fourteen  hundred  years. — No  one  shall  abolish  the 
mass  which  is  celebrated  for  the  honor  of  God  and  the  comfort 
of  the  living  and  the  dead. — Every  one  shall  confess  twice 
during  Lent,  and  receive  the  sacrament  agreeably  to  the 
ancient  custom. — All  the  ancient  customs  shall  continue  to  be 
observed. — Every  one  who  receives  the  sacrament  shall,  at 
the  four  great  festivals,  give  to  his  pastor  the  four  offerings ; 
also  a  soul-legacy,  ban-money,  &c. — On  Fridays,  Saturdays, 
and  other  interdicted  days,  no  one  shall  eat  flesh,  nor  any 
thing  cooked  of  flesh ;  and  during  Lent  all  shall  abstain  from 
flesh,  eggs,  cheese,  &c. — None  shall  either  speak  or  preach 
of  Lutheran  novelties,  or  against  the  ancient  faith. — Images 
shall  not  be  injured. — A  pastor  shall  not  be  obliged  to  give 
an  account  of  his  doctrine  to  any  but  his  superior. — The  holy 
gospel  and  Christian  doctrine  shall  be  preached  in  accordance 
witli  the  ancient  custom. — None  shall  scoff  at  the  fraternity 
of  the  Holy  Ghost,  our  lady  of  Constance,  St.  Anthony,  &c. — 
The  mandates  of  the  bishop  of  Constance  shall  be  obeyed. — 
Men  and  women,  old  and  young,  shall  be  bound  by  an  oath  to 
inform  against  any  Avhom  they  shall  see  contravening  these 
articles."  This  pitiful  summary  serves  as  a  specimen  of  the 
piety  of  the  Papist  church  in  Switzerland  at  that  time.  It  is 
lamentable  that  these  confederates,  in  their  zeal  for  religion, 
could  find  nothing  in  Christianity  more  worthy  of  their  regard. 
On  the  21st  of  March,  according  to  Hettinger,  but,  as 
Gieseler  has  it  more  correctly,  in  the  month  of  February,  the 
same  confederates  sent  to  Zurich  a  solemn  embassy  to  re- 
monstrate against  the  religious  changes  which  had  taken  place 
in  this  canton.  In  a  written  instruction,  with  which  the  am- 
bassadors were  furnished,  they  complained,  That  the  Christian 
faith,  which  so  many  holy  and  most  learned  fathers  and  doctors, 
by  the  grace  of  God  and  the  inspiration  of  the  Holy  Ghost, 
had  from  time  to  time  collected  and  formed  into  a  system, 


168  HISTORY   OF   THE 

and  in  which  there  had  been  so  long  a  unanimity,  -was  now 
ruptured  by  wicked  men  ;  that  daily  experience  taught  them 
that  the  time  had  arrived  when  they  must  combine,  at  the 
risk  of  their  property  and  their  lives,  to  prevent  such  innova- 
tions, and,  above  all,  to  preserve  from  reproach  the  honor  of 
God,  of  his  most  holy  mother,  the  Virgin  Mary,  of  all  the 
dear  saints,  and  of  the  angels ;  that  the  authors  of  all  these 
unheard  of,  ungodly,  and  unchristian  acts,  in  the  city  and 
country  of  Zurich,  were  Zwingle  and  Leo  Juda,  together  with 
other  priests,  and  their  adherents,  who  so  preached  the  word 
of  God,  which  ought  to  conduce  to  peace,  quiet,  and  union,  as 
to  cause  and  propagate  dissensions,  envy,  hatred,  disruption 
of  Christian  tranquillity,  love,  and  union,  &c. ;  that,  as  every 
body  knew,  the  errors  of  the  clergy  led  to  such  a  levity,  that 
priests  became  married,  monks  and  nuns  left  their  convents, 
'intending  to  lead  a  matrimonial  life,  and  forgetting  their  vows 
and  the  oaths  they  had  sworn  to  God  and  their  superiors,  all 
which  tended  to  the  distraction  and  decline  of  the  venerated 
monasteries ;  that  the  confederates  could  not  endure  these 
things,  but  would  exert  themselves  seriously,  with  all  their 
might,  to  prevent  them,  because  they  and  everybody  saw  and 
felt  that,  by  this  Lutheran  sect,  all  praiseworthy,  acceptable, 
upright  worship  was  diminished,  despised,  and  annihilated,  the 
ornaments  of  the  churches,  the  churches  themselves,  all  good 
Christian  works,  and  the  priesthood  itself  were  contemned,  as, 
also,  singing,  reading,  and  praying  agreeably  to  the  order  of 
the  Christian  church ;  confession  and  penance  were  esteemed 
useless,  all  the  convents  were  distracted,  the  benefices  broken 
up,  the  holy  mass  reproached  and  destroyed,  and  the  sacra- 
ment given  without  confession  and  penance ;  that  the  worthy 
mother  of  God  and  all  the  dear  saints  were  reviled,  their 
images  cut  and  broken  to  pieces,  the  holy  sacraments  in  part 
annihilated,  and  there  wanted  but  little  that  the  tender  body 
of  Jesus  Christ  in  the  hands  of  the  priest  were  touched  upon 
and  doubted  of  in  the  faith  of  some  ;*  that  the  priests  of  the 

*  From  this  it  appears  that  the  doctrine  of  the  real  presence  "w^b  questioned 
in  Switzerland  before  the  controversy  on  that  subject  ai'ose  from  the  pub- 


GERMAN    REFORMED    CHURCH.  169 

four  forest-towns,*  together  with  those  of  Ziig,  had  entreated 
them  to  come  to  their  aid,  apprehending  that,  without  the 
support  of  the  civil  arm,  they  would  not  be  able  any  longer 
to  sustain  themselves  in  their  sacred  ministrations  ;  and,  finally, 
they  acknowledged  the  existence  of  grievous  abuses  in  the 
church,  of  which  they  mention  the  encroachments  of  the  popes, 
cardinals,  bishops,  and  other  prelates  upon  the  rights  of  the 
secular  powers,  their  numerous  exactions,  the  preference  given 
to  papal  courtiers  in  ecclesiastical  appointments,  the  traffic 
and  sale  of  benefices,  and  the  imposture  of  indulgences.  All 
these  they  pi'ofessed  to  condemn,  and  to  be  ready  to  unite 
with  Zurich  in  reforming,  if  this  canton  would  limit  itself  to 
such  measures  of  reform  as  they  could  approve.f 

Soon  after  this  embassy,  these  confederates  gave  a  most 
impressive  evidence  of  the  sincerity  of  their  purpose  to  exter- 
minate the  so-called  new  faith,  by  the  execution  of  the  unfor- 
tunate Hottinger,  who  suffered  death  at  their  hands,  about 
the  close  of  the  month  of  March,  for  having  thrown  down  a 
crucifix  and  vindicated  the  doctrine  of  the  reformers.  Zurich, 
which  had  pleaded  for  his  life  in  vain,  could  learn,  by  this 
example,  that  their  menaces  were  not  idle  words,  and  could 
learn  too  what  itself  might  expect,  if  it  were  exposed,  as  weak 
and  unprotected,  to  the  same  hands.  Between  threats  and 
provocations,  her  situation  was  extremely  delicate,  and  the 
utmost  wisdom,  uniting  equal  forbearance  and  firmness,  was 
required  for  her  safety  and  the  success  of  the  truth,  as  well  as 
for  the  peace  of  the  confederacy. 

The  council  were  equal  to  the  crisis.  They  heard  the 
ambassadors  with  the  most  respectful  attention,  but  demeaned 


lication  of  Carlstadt's  work  against  Luther.     Zwingle  was  not  tlie  author  of  ^ 
his  theory ;  it  was  entertained  substantially,  though  in  diversified  forms,  by 
many  others,  and  by  some  even  before  his  time.     See  Fueslin's  Beitrage  zur 
Reform.  Gesch.  des  Schweitzcrlandes,  vol.  ii.  p.  249 ;  vol.  v.  Vorrede,  p.  xi. 

*  The  four  forest-towns,  as  they  were  called  in  Switzerland,  were  the 
cantons  of  Luzern,  Uri,  Schweitz,  and  Unterwalden. 

f  Hottinger,   &c.,  p.  169,   &c.      Fueslin's  Beitrage,  &c.,  vol.  ii.  art.  iv, 
2  iii.  V.  vi.  vii.  p.  231,  &c. 

P  22 


170  HISTORY   OF   THE 

themselves  at  tlic  same  time  "with  a  dignity  that  was  adapted 
to  inspire  equal  respect.  After  the  departure  of  the  am- 
bassadors, to  whom  a  verbal  answer  was  given,  Zwingle  was 
directed  to  prepare  a  reply  to  the  written  remonstrance  of  the 
confederates,  which,  being  approved  by  the  council,  was 
printed  and  sent  to  the  several  cantons,  on  the  21st  of  March, 
under  the  title,  Antworten  die  ein  Biirger-meister  und  Rath 
der  Stadt  Zurich  ihren  getreuen  lichen  Eidgenossen  der  elf 
Orte  auf  etliche  ihnen  vorgehaltene  Artikel  gegehen  hat, — 
"  Answers  which  a  Burgo-master  and  Council  of  the  city  of 
Zurich  have  given  to  the  several  articles  which  their  faithful 
beloved  confederates  of  the  eleven  cantons  have  objected  to 
them."*  In  this  reply,  they  took  up  the  complaints  of  their 
confederates  one  by  one,  and  gave  to  each  severally  a  calm, 
mild,  and  respectful  answer.  They  took  no  notice  of  the 
covert  menaces  that  were  mingled  with  the  complaints  of 
their  brethren,  but  noticed  with  expressions  of  high  gratifica- 
tion the  proposition  to  unite  with  Zurich  in  the  correction  of 
abuses.  On  this  subject,  they  say,  "  Faithful,  beloved  con- 
federates, your  oiFer  to  aid  us  in  removing  the  above-mentioned 
grievances,  affords  us  very  great  pleasure.  We  pray  God  to 
open  to  us  the  way  in  which  this  may  be  done.  But  it  is  our 
opinion  that  it  can  be  accomplished  only  by  means  of  the 
word  of  God,  which  we  must  appreciate,  as  it  truly  is,  above 
their  doctrines  and  statutes.  For  if  we  grant  to  them  their 
human  doctrines,  we  cannot  disengage  ourselves  from  their 
power.  In  their  writings  and  their  statutes  they  have  ground 
enough  for  it ;  but  by  the  Divine  word  all  the  falsehood  of 
their  power  and  their  abuses  may  be  demolished,  and  no  room 
be  left  them  to  complain  of  the  secular  authority.  Now,  if  we 
would  use  the  word  in  one  place,  we  must  suffer  it  to  be  used 
also  in  another,  to  the  end  that  every  thing  which  God  disap- 
proves may  be  abolished  by  its  aid.  We  will  cheerfully 
communicate  with  you  about  the  manner  of  putting  away  such 

*  Fueslin  aays  that  Bern  had  no  representative  in  the  embassy  ;  but  this 
is  inconsistent  with  Hettinger's  account.  See  Fueslin's  Beitrdge,  vol.  ii.  p. 231. 


GERMAN   REFORMED   CHURCH.  171 

abuses ;  for  we  have  long  since  thought  that  the  time  had 

arrived."* 

The  confederates  flattered  themselves  that  the  concurrence 
of  the  other  cantons  in  the  object  of  the  embassy  would  induce 
Zurich  to  retrace  her  steps;  but  they  were  wholly  disap- 
pointed. When  the  embassy  arrived  in  Zurich^  the  repre- 
sentative of  Schaffhausen  separated  from  the  rest,  probably  in 
obedience  to  instructions  from  his  government,  and  only  those 
of  the  other  eleven  cantons  appeared  before  the  council :  for 
which  reason  the  answer  of  the  council  is  addressed  to  eleven 
cantons  only.  To  this  was  added  that,  when  Zurich  presented 
a  written  expostulation  to  the  government  of  Bern,  in  refer- 
ence to' the  threats  contained  in  the  complaints  of  the  con- 
federates, they  promptly  disavowed  all  intention  of  using 
force  against  her  on  account  of  her  religion,  and  gave  her  the 
kindest  assurances  of  pacific  and  friendly  designs. f 

During  this  period  of  excitement  and  fermentation,  when 
so  much  depended  from  the  priesthood,  and  so  few  of  them 
understood  the  nature  and  the  duties  of  their  office,  or  felt 
the  force  of  their  obligation  to  demean  themselves  as  the 
servants  of  Christ,  and  not  as  lords  of  his  flock,  Zwingle 
published  his  work  on  the  pastoral  office,  entitled,  "The 
Shepherd."  The  basis  of  this  treatise  was  a  sermon  which  he 
preached,  during  the  late  disputation,  to  the  clergy  who  were 
in  attendance,  and  which  he  now  enlarged  and  published  for 
more  general  and  permanent  effect.  In  this  work,  the  author 
first  delineates  the  character  of  the  true  shepherd  of  Christ, 
and  next  describes  the  false  prophet,  and  shows  how  Chris- 
tians should  act  in  reference  to  each  of  them.  He  is  severe 
upon  those  whom  the  Saviour  calls  "wolves  in  sheep's  clothing ;" 
but  when  the  question  is  asked.  How  are  they  to  be  put  away  ? 
Shall  we  kill  them  ?  he  answers,  "  It  is  certain  that,  without 
a  command  of  God,  no  man  has  a  right  to  kill.  Such  a  case 
must  be  left  to  God  himself:  he  will  doubtless  kindle  it  [/.  e 


*  Fueslin's  Beitrilge,  &c.,  vol.  ii.  p.  259. 
t  Ilottinger,  &c.,  p.  170,  171. 


172  HISTORY   OP   THE 

the  fire,]  if  he  will  have  it  so :  but  be  thou  in  the  mean  time 
of  good  cheer,  and  remember  of  what  manner  of  spirit  thou 
art.     If  the  shepherd  be  false — then  do  not  hear  him." 

At  the  same  time  appeared  also  another  work  of  Zwingle, 
but  without  his  name,  under  the  title,  Eine  treue  E7"mahnung 
an  die  Eidgenossen,  dass  sie  mcht,  durch  Hire  falsche  Prophe- 
ten  verfuliret,  sieh  der  LeJire  Christi  widersetzen, — "A  faithful 
admonition  to  the  confederates,  that  they  should  not,  misled 
by  their  false  prophets,  resist  the  doctrine  of  Christ."  The 
design  of  this  work  appears  from  its  title  :  it  was  to  procure 
toleration  for  the  preaching  of  the  gospel,  and,  for  this  pur- 
pose, to  subdue  the  prejudices  of  the  popish  cantons,  and  to 
counteract  the  malign  influence  of  their  clergy.  The  cantons 
were,  however,  far  from  being  unanimous  in  their  opposition 
to  Zurich :  those  of  Basel,  Bern,  Soleure,  Scliaffhausen, 
Appenzel,  and  Cflarus  were  more  or  less  favorably  disposed ; 
while  the  rest,  and  especially  Luzern,  were  violently  opposed, 
and  inclined  to  the  harshest  measures. 

Hugo  of  Landenberg,  bishop  of  Constance,  had  fruitlessly 
endeavored,  by  several  missives  addressed  to  the  council  of 
Zurich,  prior  to  the  disputation  of  the  26th  of  October,  1523, 
as  well  as  by  his  representatives  at  that  meeting,  to  dissuade 
the  rulers  of  the  canton  from  their  purpose  of  sufiering  reli- 
gious questions  to  be  debated  in  that  assembly,  and  was  not  a 
little  mortified  by  what  he  esteemed  their  obstinacy  in  error : 
and  the  task  which  they  imposed  upon  him,  when  they  trans- 
mitted a  copy  of  their  resolution,  and  demanded  from  him, 
within  a  given  time,  a  scriptural  defence  of  image-worship 
and  the  mass,  with  reference  to  their  ulterior  action,  was  any 
thing  but  agreeable  to  him.  He  could  not  decently  refuse  a 
compliance,  at  least  in  appearance,  with  their  demand,  and 
accordingly  wrote  a  defence  at  great  length,*  which  was 
submitted  to  several  universities,  and  printed  with  their 
approbation.  But,  vexed  at  the  pertinacity  of  the  council, 
embarrassed  by  their  questions,  and  fretted  by  the  continued 

*  It  was  comprised  in  fifty  printed  sheets.     Hottinger,  &c.,  p.  173. 


GERMAN    REFORMED    CHURCH.  173 

progress  of  the  new  lieresy,  he  endeavored  to  stir  up  the 
popish  cantons  to  more  efficient  action,  and  persuaded  the 
bishops  of  Basel  and  Lausanne  to  unite  with  him  in  making 
suitable  representations  to  the  diet,  which  was  to  assemble  at 
Luzern,  in  the  week  succeeding  the  easter-festival  of  the  year 
1524.  These  prelates  sent  special  messengers  with  letters 
and  oral  communications  to  the  diet,  urging  them  to  adopt 
vigorous  measures  for  the  suppression  of  the  new  doctrines, 
and  the  maintenance  of  the  ancient  faith  and  customs  of  the 
church.  They  represented  that,  although  now  the  spiritual 
rulers  alone  were  attacked,  there  was  no  reason  to  doubt  but 
that  the  secular  authorities  would  be  next  treated  in  the  same 
way ;  that  the  result  of  these  doctrines  would  be  the  over- 
throw of  all  divine  worship,  and  the  contempt  of  God,  of  the 
holy  virgin,  &c. ;  that  the  bishops  would  not  be  able  to 
execute  their  office  for  the  punishment  of  clerical  and  secular 
transgressors,  and  every  one  would  do  what  he  pleased  with 
impunity,  &c.  The  confederates,  they  said,  were  celebrated 
above  all  the  German  states  for  piety  and  love,  and  justly 
bore  the  title  of  "guardians  of  the  church;"  and  for  this 
reason  they  solicited  their  aid  in  the  present  emergency  :  and 
as  the  expected  general  council  was  delayed,  to  the  great 
injury  of  souls,  there  was  a  necessity,  they  said,  to  take  some 
measures  in  the  mean  time  to  prevent  individual  churches 
from  changing  the  institutions  which  had  subsisted  more  than 
a  thousand  years,  and  were  undoubtedly  established  with  the 
concurrence  of  the  Holy  Ghost  and  the  sacred  Scriptures. 
They  professed  a  readiness,  if  any  abuses  had  crept  into  the 
clerical  order,  to  co-operate  with  the  diet  in  correcting  them, 
and  uracd  that,  inasmuch  as  it  was  uncertain  what  the  inten- 
tions  of  some  of  the  cantons  were,  every  one  should  be  required 
to  give  a  definitive  answer  at  the  next  diet.* 

What  impression  the  diet  received  from  these  arguments 
we  are  not  distinctly  informed ;  but  the  members  of  that  body 
could  not  be  ignorant  of  the  wretched  morals  of  the  clergy, 

*  Hottinger,  &c.,  p.  172. 
p2 


174  HISTORY  OF  THE 

which  were  a  subject  of  general  complaint ;  they  could  not 
have  forgotten  the  disgusting  pictui-e  which  Hugo  himself  had 
drawn  of  those  of  his  own  diocese  a  few  years  before,  nor  the 
inefficiency  of  his  castigating  pastoral  to  reform  them ;  they 
could  not  shut  their  eyes  upon  the  connivance  of  the  spiritual 
courts  at  the  crimes  of  ecclesiastics,  nor  upon  the  loose  and 
irregular  lives  of  the  bishops  themselves ;  and  they  could 
therefore  hardly  put  much  confidence  in  the  promise  of  these 
bishops  to  aid  them  in  a  reformation  of  the  dissolute  priest- 
hood, nor  be  greatly  alarmed  by  the  apprehension  that  the 
spiritual  courts  were  in  danger  of  becoming  powerless  for  the 
punishment  of  crimes. 

Together  with  these  representations,  the  bishop  of  Constance 
sent  to  the  diet,  for  distribution,  copies  of  his  defence  of 
images  and  the  mass.  It  was  probably  the  joint  production 
of  several  hands,  and  chiefly  of  the  bishop's  vicar-general,  the 
learned  Faber,  though  it  bore  Hugo's  name.  It  was,  never- 
theless, a  feeble  defence,  though  doubtless  the  best  that  could 
have  been  made.  The  Scriptures,  they  said,  forbid  only  the 
images  of  heathens,  which  are  made  to  represent  their  idols, 
but  those  of  Christians,  which  are  representations  of  Christ 
and  his  saints,  are  useful,  have  been  long  in  use,  and  were 
sanctioned  by  the  second  council  o^  Nice.  The  mass  they 
endeavored  to  sustain  by  such  texts  as  Genesis  xiv.  18  : 
"  Melchizedek  brought  forth  bread  and  wine ;  and  he  was  a 
priest  of  the  most  high  God."  Malaclii  i.  11  :  "  My  name 
shall  be  great  among  the  Gentiles  from  the  rising  of  the  sun 
to  the  going  down  of  the  same  :  and  in  every  place  incense 
shall  be  offered  unto  my  name,  and  a  pure  offering."  Acts 
xiii.  2 :  "As  they  ministered  unto  the  Lord,"  &c. 

Although  this  production  professed  to  be  an  answer  to  the 
council  of  Zurich,  it  was  first  distributed  at  the  diet  o^  Luzern, 
in  the  month  of  April,  and  a  copy  of  it  was  not  received  in 
Zurich  until  about  the  first  day  of  June.  Longer  than  this 
it  could  not  have  been  delayed,  because  the  council  were 
pledged  to  wait  for  it  only  until  Whitsuntide.  This  reserve, 
so  long  after  the  work  had  been  circulated  among  the  Papists, 


GERMAN    REFORMED    CHURCH.  175 

seems  to  have  been  designed  to  gain  time  for  the  bishop's 
argument  to  pre-occupy  their  minds,  and  to  produce  its  effect, 
before  it  could  be  answered  by  the  reformers.  When  a  copy 
was  received,  Zwingle  was  instructed  to  reply  to  it,  and  this 
answer  was  published  on  the  18th  of  August,  under  the  title, 
Christliche  Antwort  BUrger-meister  und  Jlaths  in  Zurich,  dem 
hocltiviirdigen  JBisJioff  zu  Constanz  iiber  den  Unterricht  heyder 
Artikel  der  Bilder  und  Mess  ihnen  zugeschicht, — "  Christian 
Answer  of  the  Burgomaster  and  Council  of  Zurich  to  the  very 
reverend  bishop  at  Constance,  upon  the  '  Instruction'  sent  to 
them  concernino;  the  two  articles  of  the  Images  and  the  Mass." 
In  this  reply,  which  the  council  adopted  as  their  own,  they 
exposed  the  futility  of  the  bishop's  reasoning,  and  vindicated 
themselves  from  the  injurious  aspersions  which  the  reverend 
father  had  cast  upon  them,  and  particularly  from  the  charge 
of  arbitrarily  interpreting  the  Scriptures,  and  of  executing 
their  purposes  by  force  and  violence ;  and  they  professed  to 
adhere  closely  to  the  clear  and  eternal  word  of  God,  which, 
they  observed,  no  violence  can  undo.  In  this  last  remark,  it 
is  thought,  they  alluded  to  the  compact  of  cardinal  Campegius 
at  Rathhon  [Regenshurg)  with  three  princes  of  the  empire 
and  ten  bishops,  including  those  of  Basel  and  Oonstance,  for 
the  immediate  execution  of  the  edict  of  Worms  against  Luther 
and  his  followers,  with  whom  the  Reformed  were  confounded.* 
As  the  time  of  the  periodical  processions  approached,  it  was 
resolved,  in  pursuance  of  the  advice  of  the  three  city  pastors, 
to  tolerate  some  of  them  still  for  the  present,  but  to  modify 
them,  by  substituting  a  sermon  and  prayer  for  unintelligible 
pomp,  while  others  were  wholly  abolished.  The  great  annual 
pilgrimage  to  Einsiedehi  on  Whitmonday  was  discontinued ; 
the  procession  with  the  consecrated  host,  or  Corpus  Christi 
day,  with  its  octave  or  indulgence-week,  was  set  aside,  and, 
instead  of  it,  a  sermon  was  preached  in  the  morning,  after 
which  the  people  returned  to  their  secular  occupations  ;  the 
relics  in  the  Great-Minster  and  Lady-Minster,  or  Notre  Dame, 

*  Hottinger,  &c.,  p.  173. 


176  HISTORY   OP   THE 

were  removed  and  buried,  the  organs  were  taken  from  the 
churches,  the  tolling  of  bells  at  funerals  and  during  a  tempest, 
the  four  offerings  for  the  dead,  the  consecration  of  palms, 
water,  and  tapers,  and  the  ceremony  of  extreme  unction,  were 
abolished.* 

The  time  had  now  arrived  to  which  the  council  had  post- 
poned their  ulterior  action  on  the  subject  of  images  and  the 
mass,  to  afford  time  to  their  advocates  to  prove  their  con- 
sistency with  the  Holy  Scriptures ;  and  no  one  had  yet  come 
forward  to  sustain  them  by  such  proof;  for  the  bishop's  de- 
fence was  far  from  meriting  that  character.  The  three  pas- 
tors of  the  city,  therefore,  not  only  urged  the  abolition  of 
these  objects  of  superstition  in  their  sermons,  but  appeared 
also  before  the  council  and  solicited  their  decree  for  that 
purpose.  The  council,  with  characteristic  caution,  referred 
the  subject  to  a  commission,  consisting  of  the  abbot  of  Cappel, 
the  commander  of  Kusnaclit,  the  provosts  of  the  two  chapters 
at  Zurich  and  Emhrach,  the  pastors  Zwingle,  Leo  Juda,  and 
Engelhard,  and  some  members  of  each  of  the  councils,  with 
instructions  to  report  to  them  oti  the  manner  of  effecting  the 
object.  In  their  report,  the  commission  presented  a  condensed 
view  of  the  grounds  for  the  abolition,  and  concluded  by  recom- 
mending that  the  mass  be  abolished ;  that  the  images,  both 
paintings  and  statues,  be  removed  wherever  they  were  wor- 
shipped, and  the  decorations  which  were  lavished  upon  them 
applied  to  the  relief  of  the  poor,  who,  as  rational  beings,  were 
true  images  of  God ;  that  good  order  be  observed  in  the  re- 
moval, and  no  violence  be  used ;  and  that,  where  the  people 
were  not  prepared  for  the  change,  the  preachers  should  be 
required  to  teach  them  the  word  of  God  concerning  these  and 


*  In  the  chux'ches  of  the  Papists,  the  organ  was  used  only  in  the  choir- 
service,  which  was  performed  by  the  canons,  the  hymns  were  in  Latin,  the 
service  was  addressed  to  the  saints,  and  the  music  was  theatrical.  When 
this  service  ceased,  the  organs  were  useless.  Bells  were  rung  or  tolled  at 
funerals,  for  the  benefit  of  the  dead,  and,  during  a  tempest,  to  calm  the  ele- 
ments and  divert  the  thunderbolt.  AVhen  these  superstitions  were  exploded, 
the  customs  that  were  founded  upon  them  fell  also. 


GERMAN    REFORMED    CHURCH.  177 

other  matters.  The  council,  still  cautious  and  wisely  circum- 
spect, were  unwilling  to  hazard  so  great  a  shock  to  the  feelings 
of  the  Papists  as  the  abolition,  at  the  same  time,  of  two  such 
important  parts  of  their  worship  was  adapted  to  give  them, 
and  resolved,  therefore,  to  leave  the  mass  untouched  for  the 
present ;  and  with  regard  to  the  images,  which  were  objects 
of  religious  veneration,  and  were  therefore  idols  in  the  strictest 
sense,  they  determined  to  test  the  feelings  of  the  people,  and 
to  prepare  the  community  for  a  general  abolition,  by  first 
giving  permission  to  individuals  who  had  presented  images  to 
the  churches  or  convents,  or  had  erected  them  elsewhere,  to 
remove  them.  In  consequence  of  this  permission,  many  were 
removed  ;  and  this  commencement  furnished  an  occasion  for 
the  manifestation  of  public  sentiment,  which  was  decidedly 
against  these  objects  of  idolatrous  veneration. 

In  a  few  days  after  these  transactions,  the  city  was  thrown 
into  mourning  by  the  death  of  her  two  burgomasters,  Felix 
Schmid,  who  died  on  the  13th  of  June,  and  Marcus  Roust,  on 
the  15th.  The  Papists  might  regard  this  sad  bereavement  as 
a  judgment  of  heaven  for  the  dishonor  done  to  their  venerated 
saints,  just  as  the  Gentiles  ascribed  the  calamities  which 
afflicted  them  to  the  anger  of  their  gods  at  the  prevalence  of 
Christianity  and  the  neglect  of  their  sacred  rites.  But  the 
Reformed,  taking  a  more  rational  view  of  the  afflicting  event, 
and  knowing  that  their  measures  were  in  accordance  with  the 
divine  oracles,  were  neither  disheartened  nor  embarrassed. 
In  the  place  of  their  departed  chief-magistrates,  two  others, 
Henry  Walder  and  Diethelm  Rtiust,  were  chosen,  both  of 
whom  were  decided  and  warm  friends  to  the  Reformation,  and 
the  progress  of  the  work  continued  without  interruption. 

On  the  15th  of  June,  the  council  ordered  that  all  images 
that  were  contrary  to  the  Holy  Scriptures  should  be  put  away 
without  farther  delay,  without,  however,  resorting  to  violence 
in  any  case ;  and  orders  to  this  effect  were  sent  to  the  magis- 
trates throughout  the  canton.  Congregations,  also,  which  had 
procured  them  at  their  joint  expense,  were  authorized  to  dis- 
pose of  them  as  a  majority  of  their  members  might  determine.. 

23 


178  HISTORY   OF   THE 

This  mandate  was  carried  into  effect  in  every  part  of  the 
canton  "without  the  slightest  disturbance ;  from  which  it  was 
evident  that  the  public  mind  had  been  fully  prepared  for  the 
change  by  the  prudent  measures  Avhich  the  government,  sup- 
ported by  the  reformers,  had  pursued.  Even  now,  where 
images  were  removed  by  the  magistrates,  or  by  others  acting 
under  the  direction  of  the  council,  they  were  not  immediately 
devoted  to  destruction,  but  were  carefully  preserved,  and  the 
assurance  was  still  given,  that  they  should  be  restored  to  their 
honors  as  soon  as  any  person  should  have  shown,  by  the  Holy 
Scriptures,  a  divine  authority  for  so  doing :  but,  as  such 
authority  was  never  proved,  they  were  ultimately  given  to  the 
flames.  Many  of  the  devout  Papists  were  persuaded  that  the 
saints  would  baffle  the  councils  of  earthly  men  ;  the  holy  images 
would  resist  the  attempt  to  remove  them,  or,  if  they  were 
taken  away,  would  return  to  their  places,  as  the  divine  Saviour 
did,  after  his  crucifixion,  on  the  third  day.  This  time,  how- 
ever, they  silently  submitted  to  their  fate  ;  and  not  a  few  of 
the  pious  devotees  wondered  that  the  objects  which  they  had 
honored  with  so  much  reverence  were  now  so  insensible  to 
injury  and  disgrace.* 

But  all  this  caution,  and  this  friendly  attention  to  the  pre- 
judices of  the  weak,  did  not  satisfy  the  other  cantons.  The 
zealous  Papists  were  the  more  imbittered,  and  the  most  in- 
jurious reports  concerning  the  recent  events  in  Zurich,  and 
the  state  of  her  affairs,  were  circulated  among  them  and 
listened  to  by  willing  ears.  So  gratuitous  and  so  gross  were 
the  tales  that  were  told,  and  easily  believed,  that  Zwingle  was 
induced  to  write  and  publish  a  defensive  tract,  under  the  title, 
"A  diligent  and  brief  instruction,  showing  how  one  ought  to 
be  guarded  against  lies." 

This  bitter  and  vindictive  spirit  was  nourished  by  the 
Papist  clergy,  especially  by  the  dignitaries  of  the  church ; 
and  the  pope  himself  contributed  his  full  share  of  influence  to 
increase  its  acerbity.     Clement  VII.  addressed  a  letter  to 

*  Hottinger,  &c.,  p.  17G-179. 


GERMAN    REFORMED    CHURCH.  179 

the  popish  cantons,  in  T\hich  he  commended  in  strong  terms 
their  conduct  in  reference  to  the  Reformation,  saying  that  it 
did  them  more,  honor  than  all  their  former  victories,  and  ex- 
horted them  not  only  to  continue  firm,  but  to  exterminate 
those  who  dissented  from  their  faith.*  This  letter  was  dated 
on  the  18th  of  April,  1524.  It  synchronizes  with  the  pro- 
duction of  the  bishop  of  Constance  and  his  transactions  with 
the  diet  of  Luzcrn,  and  with  the  efforts  of  Campegius,  the 
pope's  nuncio,  at  the  imperial  diet  of  Nuremherg,  to  procure 
the  execution  of  the  edict  of  Worms,  and  his  subsequent  trans- 
actions at  Matishon  with  some  of  the  princes  and  bishops  for 
the  same  end.f  The  hierarchy  evidently  spared  no  pains  to 
unite  the  secular  rulers  in  a  common  cause  against  the  Re- 
formation, and  to  try  the  efficacy  of  the  sword  and  the  terrors 


*  Hottinger,  &c.,  p.  181. 

t  The  diet  of  Nuremberg  having  promised  only  to  comply  with  the  edict 
of  Worms  as  far  as  they  were  able,  which  qualification  left  them  all  the  lati- 
tude which  their  policy  might  require,  the  nuncio,  by  the  pope's  command, 
endeavored  to  separate  the  zealous  adherents  of  the  holy  see  from  the  other 
princes  and  states  of  the  empire,  and  to  unite  them  in  a  solemn  obligation 
to  execute  that  decree  in  their  respective  dominions  for  the  extermination 
of  the  Lutheran  heresy.  At  the  same  time,  to  amuse  those  who  were  clamor- 
ous for  a  general  council  with  a  view  to  the  reformation  of  the  church,  and 
to  shield  the  pope  from  the  demands  which  the  concessions  and  promises  of 
his  predecessor,  Adrian  VI.,  had  authorized,  he  di-ew  up  a  plan  of  reforma- 
tion which  he  proposed  as  the  object  that  was  sought  after,  but  which 
affected  only  the  inferior  clergy,  and  left  all  the  great  abuses  of  the  hierarchy 
untouched.  He  succeeded  only  to  a  very  moderate  extent.  Of  the  princes 
of' the  empire,  only  Ferdinand,  brother  to  the  emperor,  and  regent  of  the 
empire,  and  the  dukes  William  and  Lewis  of  Bavaria ;  and  of  the  bishops, 
those  of  Trent,  Saltzburg,  Ratisbon,  Bamberg,  Speyer,  Strasburg,  Augsburg, 
Constance,  Basel,  Freysingen,  Passau  and  Brixen,  in  all  twelve,  entered  into 
his  design.  These  secular  and  spiritual  lords  published  a  decree  on  the  6th  of 
July,  in  which  they  ordered,  That  the  edict  of  Worms  should  be  rigidly 
executed ;  in  the  use  of  the  sacraments  and  other  ecclesiastical  rites,  nothing 
should  be  changed ;  married  priests  and  monastics  who  left  their  convents 
should  be  punished  with  all  the  severity  of  the  canon  law ;  the  gospel  should 
be  preached  agreeably  to  the  interpretation  of  the  fathers  and  of  the  divines 
whom  the  church  approved ;  students  of  their  dominions  at  Wittenberg 
should  be  required  to  return  to  their  homes  within  three  months,  at  the 
hazard  of  losing  their  property  and  future  promotion  ;  no  Lutheran  who  was 


180  HISTORY  OF  THE 

of  death,  where  reason  and  the  divine  oracles  failed  them  ;  and 
nothing  but  the  want  of  power  prevented  them  from  applying 
this  remedy  for  the  divisions  of  the  church  both  in  Germany 
and  Su'itzerland. 

In  the  month  6f  July,  an  embassy  came  to  Zurich  from  ten 
cantons  assembled  in  a  diet  at  Zug,  in  the  canton  of  the  same 
name.  These  ambassadors  represented  to  the  council,  as 
matters  of  public  grievance,  that  Zurich  had  adopted  errors 
which  ecclesiastical  councils  had  condemned,  that  the  sacra- 
ment was  refused  to  the  sick,  confession  and  masses  were  dis- 
credited, baptism  was  stripped  of  its  ornature,  the  worship  of 
God  and  his  mother,  together  with  the  fear  and  love  of  God, 
were  diminished,  churches  and  chapels  were  divested  of  their 
images,  the  perpetual  virginity  of  Mary  was  denied,  &c.  They 
exhorted  that,  as  Zurich,  and  all  the  confederates,  had  been 
good  Christians,  and  lived  harmoniously  in  one  faith,  and  had 
thereby  obtained  much  favor  and  honor  from  God,  she  should 
continue  in  their  covenant  such  as  she  had  entered  into  it, 
and  prefer  the  confederacy  to  two  or  three  men  who  were  the 
authors  of  so  much  error  and  discord.  They  repeated  their 
promise  of  the  removal  of  the  grievances  that  proceeded  from 
the  hierarchy,  and  declared  their  conviction  that,  if  Zurich 
persisted  in  her  course,  the  dissolution  of  the  confederacy  was 
to  be  apprehended ;  for  the  common  people  would  refuse  to 
pay  rents  and  tythes,  pretending  that  all  things  should  be  held 
in  common,  and  would  despise  their  governments.  They  de- 
clared that  their  governments  would  neither  suffer  the  offen- 
sive doctrines  within  their  own  dominions,  nor  tolerate  them 
in  the  common  territories,  but  would  punish  their  adherents 
with  confiscation  of  property,  infamy,  and  death.  The  council 
answered,  with  great  moderation,  that  they  could  not  discover 
that  they  had  thus  far  separated  themselves  from  their  con- 


outlawed  by  one  of  tlie  parties  should  be  protected  by  another ;  and  if  one 
of  the  contracting  parties  were  attacked,  on  account  of  his  participation  in 
this  covenant,  the  rest  should  come  to  his  assistance.  See  Seckendorf 'a 
Geach,  des  Lutherthums,  col.  C20,  &c. 


GERMAN    REFORMED    CHURCH.  181 

federates  In  any  thing  which,  agreeably  to  the  word  of  God, 
pertained  to  their  covenant,  or  to  their  duty  as  Christians. 
They  were  willing,  nevertheless,  to  confer  with  their  brethren 
on  this  matter,  and  to  give  an  account  of  their  measures,  in 
the  hope  that,  with  the  divine  blessing,  they  might  be  able  to 
come  to  some  accommodation ;  especially  as  ,thcy  were  not 
producing  any  thing  new,  and  went  no  farther  than  they  were 
warranted  by  the  word  of  God.  As  to  the  punishment  of 
their  subjects  in  the  common  territories,  on  account  of  their 
faith,  that  was  a  purpose  to  which  Zurich  had  not  consented, 
and  they  hoped  it  would  not  be  persisted  in.  They  requested 
a  written  copy  of  the  verbal  communications  of  the  ambassa- 
dors, which  was  refused ;  and  these  ambassadors  now  informed 
them,  that  in  future  the  six  cantons  of  Luzern,  Uri,  Sclitveitz, 
Unterivalden,  Zug,  and  Frihurg  would  not  admit  them  to  a 
seat  in  their  diets ;  and  they  hoped  that  the  four  cantons  of 
Cflarus,  Bern,  Basel,  and  Soleure,  which  had  not  yet  come  to 
this  determination,  would  unite  with  them.  To  this  declara- 
tion the  council  calmly  replied.  They  would  not  have  thought 
that  there  would  be  so  much  heat  against  them.* 

An  occasion  soon  arrived  to  show  that  the  threats  of  these 
cantons  were  not  to  be  despised.  "We  have  already  had  an 
example  of  their  spirit  in  the  case  of  the  unfortunate  Hottinger. 
Another,  of  a  still  more  affecting  character,  was  now  exhibited 
in  the  fate  of  other  victims. 

Johannes  Oechslein,  better  known  by  his  Latinized  name, 
Taureolus,  the  early  friend  of  Zwingle  in  EinsiecMn,  pastor 
of  a  church  at  Burg,  near  the  town  of  Stein,  and  in  the  terri- 
tory of  Thurgau,  but  situated  near  the  border  of  the  canton 
of  Zurich,  had  incurred  the  hatred  of  the  Papists  by  his  zeal 
and  activity  in  behalf  of  the  Reformation.  The  same  diet 
whose  representatives  had  recently  appeared  in  Zurich,  being 
informed  that  Taureolus  was  unacceptable  to  his  collator,  the 
abbot  of  St.  Gall,  but  could  not  be  removed  because  the 
people  sustained  him,  gave  orders  to  their  governor,  Joseph 

*  Hottinger,  &c.,  p.  181,  &c- 


182  HISTORY   OF   THE 

Amberg,  to  expel  him  from  his  living.  Under  these  orders, 
the  governor  caused  him  to  be  seized  at  night  in  his  bed,  and 
forcibly  abducted.  An  attempt  had  been  made  some  time 
before  to  kidnap  several  citizens  of  the  neighboring  villages 
of  Stammheim  and  Nusshaum,  within  the  jurisdiction  of 
Zurich,  who  had  been  conspicuous  at  the  burning  of  images, 
under  the  orders  of  their  government ;  but  it  failed  in  conse- 
quence of  an  early  discovery.  Apprized  of  the  common 
danger,  the  citizens  had  pledged  themselves  to  hasten  to  one 
another's  rescue  if  any  similar  violence  were  attempted.  The 
prisoner  uttered  cries  for  help  as  he  was  forced  away,  and  the 
sentinel  in  the  castle  at  Stein,  hearing  the  voice  of  distress, 
fired  an  alarm-gun,  which  was  immediately  answered  from  the 
neighboring  villages  by  the  tolling  of  bells,  and  the  whole 
country  was  quickly  in  a  state  of  violent  agitation.  But  the 
kidnappers  eluded  the  pursuit,  and  arrived  safely  at  Frauen- 
felcl,  the  capital  of  the  province,  and  the  governor's  residence, 
where  Taureolus  was  confined  in  prison.  The  people  demanded 
his  release,  which  was  refused,  and  the  prisoner  was  removed 
for  greater  safety  to  Luzern.  Disappointment  inflamed  their 
indignation,  and,  in  this  state  of  excitement,  a  party  of  the 
most  reckless  plundered  and  burnt  the  Carthusian  convent  of 
Ittinge7i.  This  inconsiderate  act  of  violence  created  a  great 
sensation  in  the  Papist  cantons,  who  seem  to  have  lost  sight 
entirely  of  the  equally  lawless  act  of  their  governor,  and  to 
have  concentrated  all  their  indignation  upon  the  violation  of 
the  convent,  the  sacred  seat,  as  they  esteemed  it,  of  piety  and 
devotion.  The  crime  was  charged  to  citizens  of  the  canton 
of  Zurich,  than  whom  none  were  esteemed  fitter  for  so  wicked 
.  an  outrage.  Diet  after  diet  was  held,  severe  reprisals  were 
threatened,  and  a  peremptory  demand  was  made  upon  the 
council  for  the  surrender  of  four  individuals  whom  they  de- 
nounced as  the  authors  of  the  deed.  They  were  Burkhard 
Rutiman,  John  Wirt,  senior,  and  his  two  sons,  who  were  preach- 
ers, John  and  Adrian  Wirt,  the  same  who  had  been  active  in 
the  burning  of  images  at  Stammheim,  and  whom  the  governor 
had  sought  in  vain  to  carry  oflF  by  secret  violence.     The 


GERMAN    REFORMED    CHURCH.  183 

government  of  Zurich  arrested  these  citizens,  and  brought 
them  to  trial  for  the  crime  of  burning  the  convent,  but  their 
innocence  was  so  evident,  that  thc-y  were  honorably  acquitted. 
With  this  result  the  Papist  cantons  were  dissatisfied.  They 
demanded  that  the  accused  be  surrendered  to  them,  and  tried 
by  a  diet  of  their  representatives,  to  whom,  they  alleged,  the 
criminal  jurisdiction  of  Tlmrgau  belonged.*  The  Zurichian 
deputies  at  the  diet  represented,  that,  as  the  city  of  Zurich 
had  the  inferior  jurisdiction  at  the  village  of  Stammheim,  the 
primary  inquisition,  to  ascertain  if  there  were  ground  for  a 
criminal  process,  belonged  to  her  ;  and  if  there  were,  her  duty 
would  be  to  deliver  the  prisoners,  not  to  the  diet,  but  to  the 
criminal  court  vit  Frauenf eld  ;  but,  having  found  them  innocent, 
shr  could  not  be  required  to  surrender  them  at  all.  This  plea, 
and  every  other  argument,  was  disregarded  by  the  confede- 
rates, who  declared  their  determination  to  take  the  prisoners 
by  force,  if  they  were  not  peaceably  surrendered.  To  prevent 
the  effusion  of  blood,  the  deputies  proposed  to  deliver  them, 
provided  they  were  tried  only  for  the  plunder  and  burnirvg  of 
the  convent,  and  not  for  their  religious  faith ;  and  this  being 
solemnly  promised,  they  submitted  the  proposition  to  the 
council  of  Zurich.  In  Zurich  there  was  much  inquiry  and 
hesitation  on  the  subject.  Everyone  saw  that  the  unfortunate 
men  would  be  the  victims  of  an  implacable  vengeance ;  and 
the  citizens  generally  were,  for  that  reason,  opposed  to  surren- 
dering them.  Zwingle,  especially,  resisted  it  with  great 
warmth ;  but,  after  much  debate,  a  majority  of  the  council 
resolved  to  ratify  the  agreement  of  the  deputies. 

The  Avhole  city  was  deeply  affected  by  this  decision,  and 
lamented  over  the  anticipated  fate  of  the  unhappy  prisoners. 
The  reformer  denounced  the  act  from  the  pulpit  as  a  derelic- 

*  The  territory  of  Tlmrgau,  or  Thurgovia,  conquered  from  Austria  in  1460, 
belonged  to  the  ten  cantons,  Zurich,  Bern,  Luzern,  Uri,  Schweitz,  Uniericaldeii, 
Zug,  Glarus,  Friburg,  and  Soleure.  It  had  its  appropriate  internal  govern- 
ment, both  legislative  and  judicial ;  but  the  ten  cantons  appointed  its 
landvogt,  or  governor,  superintended  its  aflairs,  and,  with  the  consent  of 
its  justiciary  court,  exercised  its  criminal  jurisdiction. 


184  HISTORY   OF   THE 

tion  of  duty,  ancV  a  violation  of  long  established  usage.  He 
declared  that  Zurich  would  be  visited  with  the  judgment  of 
heaven,  for  delivering  up  to  their  enemies  men  whom  she  was 
bound  to  protect,  and  besought  the  people  to  pray  earnestly 
in  their  behalf,  that  God  might  comfort  them,  and  strengthen 
their  faith  in  this  time  of  their  distress.  In  the  mean  time, 
the  council  appointed  a  deputation  of  four  citizens  to  attend  at 
their  trial,  and  to  see  that  the  promise  given  by  the  confede- 
rates, not  to  molest  them  on  account  of  their  religion,  be  kept 
in  good  faith.  The  prisoners  were  thereupon  sent  to  Baden, 
where  the  court  was  to  assemble.  The  trial  began  on  the  Lord's 
day  !  It  was  about  the  close  of  the  month  of  August.  After 
some  other  questions,  the  interrogators  came  to  the  burning  of 
images  at  Stammlieim,  and  other  religious  matters.  Here  one 
of  the  Zurichian  deputies  objected,  and  put  the  court  in  mind 
of  the  promise  which  was  the  condition  of  the  surrender  of  the 
prisoners.  The  representative  of  Luzern  denied  that  a  pro- 
mise had  been  given  to  refrain  from  inquiries  of  that  character, 
and  gave  to  the  pledge  an  explanation  which  rendered  it  a 
nullity.  To  this  the  representatives  of  the  other  cantons 
assented  ;  upon  which  a  vehement  contention  arose  between 
the  deputies  of  Zurich  and  the  judges.  The  former  finally 
withdrew,  declaring  that  they  could  not  sanction  such  pro- 
ceedings by  their  presence.  In  the  mean  time,  the  trial  went 
on,  and  the  prisoners  were  questioned  about  the  understanding 
among  the  people  of  Stein,  Stammheim,  &c.,  a  supposed  con- 
spiracy against  the  convents,  the  doctrines  of  Zwingle,  the 
abolition  of  images,  &c.  The  governor  of  Thurgau  alleged 
many  things  against  them  which  he  had  industriously  gathered 
in  his  province.  Most  of  these  they  denied;  and  to  compel 
them  to  plead  guilty,  they  were  subjected  to  the  torture. 
But,  though  severely  tormented  on  the  rack,  and  closely 
examined,  nothing  was  extorted  from  them  to  criminate  them- 
selves, except  the  acknowledgment  of  their  faith  and  their 
religious  acts.  John  Wirt,  junior,  confessed  that  he  had 
preached  that  there  is  no  sin  in  eatino-  flesh  and  esrcr  on  fast- 
days  ;  he  had  spoken  with  approbation  of  the    burning  of 


GERMAN    REFORMED    CHURCn.  185 

imao-es  ;  he  had  taken  the  sacrament  to  a  sick  man  "without 
liglited  tapers,  sound  of  bells,  and  other  customary  ceremonies ; 
he  had  given  the  sacrament  without  a  previous  confession  ! 
The  judges  so  far  forgot  the  dignity  of  their  office,  as  well  as 
the  claims  of  humanity  and  justice,  as  to  insult  the  prisoners 
in  the  anguish  of  their  torment.  The  elder  Wirt,  when  over- 
come by  his  pain,  cried  out,  Oh,  merciful  God !  come,  I  pray 
thee,  to  my  comfort  and  support.  Upon  this,  one  of  the 
representatives  tauntingly  demanded,  Where  is  your  Christ 
now,  you  epicure?  Let  your  CJirist  now  help  you.  This  judge 
was  not  an  infidel ;  but  he  saw  nothing  in  Christ  without  Mary 
and  the  saints ;  just  as  he  saw  no  religion  in  Christianity 
without  the  ceremonies  of  the  Romish  church.  When  the 
younger  son,  Adrian  Wirt,  who  had  recently  married,  was 
suspended  on  the  rack,  the  representative  of  Bern,  Sebastian 
vom  Stein,  uttered  the  indecent  gibe,  This,  sirrah,  is  the 
tvedding-gift  we  give  with  your  lady.  After  this  examination, 
the  representatives  returned  to  their  cantons  to  report  to 
their  superiors,  and  in  about  four  weeks  came  again  with 
their  instructions.  By  this  time,  the  wife  of  the  elder  Wirt 
arrived,  to  entreat  for  the  life  of  her  husband  and  her  two 
sons.  She  was  accompanied  by  the  procurator  Ersch,  whom 
the  council  of  Zurich  had  sent  with  her  to  support  her 
petition.  They  presented  themselves  before  Hieronymus 
Stocker,  the  representative  of  Zug,  who  had  twice  been 
governor  of  Thurgau,  and  knew  well  the  character  and  merits 
of  the  accused.  They  urged  the  father's  public  and  private 
virtues,  his  large  and  dependent  family,  and  his  claims  upon 
the  justice  and  the  compassion  of  his  judges ;  and  the  wife, 
upon  her  knees,  supplicated  for  his  safety.  Stocker  acknow- 
ledged the  truth  of  all  that  was  said  in  his  behalf,  and  added  ^ 
more  in  commendation  of  his  worth ;  such,  he  said,  was  the 
estimation  in  which  he  held  him,  that,  if  he  were  guilty  of 
theft,  robbery,  or  murder,  he  would  help  to  save  him  ;  but  as 
he  had  burnt  the  image  of  St.  Anna,  the  mother  of  the  mother 
of  God,  he  must  die,  and  nothing  can  be  done  for  him.  The 
procurator  exclaimed,  "  Merciful  God !  must  a  pious  man, 
q2  24 


186  HISTORY   OF   THE 

■wlio  lias  burnt  only  -wooden  images,  find  less  favor  than  a 
thief  and  a  murderer  ?  This  Avill  by-and-by  beget  no  kind 
blood  toward  one  another."  On  the  28th  of  September  the 
representatives  of  the  cantons  sat  in  judgment  upon  the 
prisoners,  and  passed  upon  them  the  sentence  of  death. 
Adrian  Wirt  was  pardoned,  as  a  boon  to  his  bereaved  and 
broken-hearted  mother.  On  the  other  three,  the  sentence 
was  executed ;  but,  as  an  act  of  mere  grace,  they  were  put  to 
death  by  decapitation,  instead  of  burning  them  at  the  stake. 
Such  was  the  justice,  and  such,  too,  the  tenderness  of  this 
tribunal ! 

The  victims  bore  their  hard  destiny  with  truly  Christian 
fortitude.  When  the  judgment  of  the  court  was  communi- 
cated to  them,  the  father  admonished  Adrian  not  to  avenge 
their  death.  His  elder  brother,  seeing  that  he  wept,  ad- 
dressed him  in  these  words:  "You  know  that  we  have  always 
faithfully  preached  the  word  of  God ;  yet  always  with  a  cross 
to  bear.  Therefore  weep  not.  Be  courageous  and  satisfied. 
I  thank  God  that  he  has  deemed  me  worthy  to  suffer  and  to 
die  for  his  word.  His  name  be  for  ever  highly  praised — His 
will  be  done."  The  prisoners  were  the  more  willing  to  die, 
because  the  severity  of  their  confinement  and  a  cruel  torture 
had  sadly  disordered  their  bodies.  On  their  way  to  the  place 
of  execution,  they  were  annoyed,  by  a  priest  who  attended 
them,  with  an  exhortation,  as  they  passed  a  chapel,  to  fall 
upon  their  knees  and  invoke  the  saints.  At  the  fatal  spot, 
the  son  bade  adieu  to  his  father,  in  these  words :  "My  dear 
father,  henceforth  you  are  no  more  my  father,  nor  I  your  son ; 
but  we  are  brethren  in  Christ,  for  Avhose  sake  we  now  die. 
We  shall  this  day  come  to  him  who  is  the  Father  of  all 
believers,  and  in  his  presence  enjoy  an  eternal  life."  All 
the  three  died  as  Christians ;  and  the  scene  drew  tears  from 
many  of  the  spectators :  but  this  deed  of  blood  left  an  inex- 
tinguishable bitterness  in  many  minds.  Its  crying  iniquity 
was  still  more  aggravated  by  the  courts  adjudging  the  injured 
and  disconsolate  widow  to  pay  the  cost  of  the  prosecution  and 


GERMAN    REFORMED    CHURCH.  187 

the  fees  of  the  executioner  who  put  to  death  her  husband  and 
her  son  !* 

Taureolus  was  liberated  from  prison  in  Luzern,  after  a  con- 
finement of  four  weeks.  He  had  also  been  subjected  to  an 
examination  by  torture,  and  finally  obtained  his  liberty  on 
binding  himself  by  an  oath  that  he  would  not  avenge  his  suf- 
ferings, and  giving  security  for  the  payment  of  the  costs  and 
of  such  fine  as  might  yet  be  imposed  upon  him.  He  subse- 
quently obtained  a  pastorate  in  the  canton  of  Zurich,  where 
he  died  in  peace. f 

In  this  disturbed  state  of  the  confederacy,  it  was  of  the 
utmost  importance  to  the  government  of  Zurich  to  assure 
itself  of  the  attachment  and  fidelity  of  its  subjects  throughout 
the  canton.  For  this  end,  they  prepared  a  circumstantial 
report  of  all  their  transactions  for  the  last  two  years,  both  at 
home  and  with  the  confederates  abroad,  and  sent  copies  of  it 
to  the  magistrates,  with  instructions  to  read  it  to  all  the  con- 
gregations of  the  city  and  country  on  the  24th  of  June,  the 
day  of  the  annual  declaration  of  fealty.  The  effect  of  this 
exposd  was  that  the  confidence  of  the  people  in  their  rulers 
was  strengthened  anew,  and  the  government  received  assu- 
rances from  all  the  congregations,  that  they  would  be  faithful, 
at  the  risk  of  their  property  and  their  lives,  both  to  the  word 
of  God  and  to  their  rulers.;]; 

An  embassy  was  sent  also  to  Luzern,  for  the  purpose  of 
undeceiving  the  people  of  that  city  and  canton,  among  whom 
the  grossest  misrepresentations  and  falsehoods  were  circulated 
respecting  the  doctrines  preached  in  Zurich  and  the  changes 
contemplated  by  her  governments  They  asked  permission  to 
address  the  council  and  the  citizens,  and  also  the  people  of  the 
country  in  their  congregational  assemblies.     The  former  was 

*  Ilottinger,  &c.,  pp.  185-190.  Entschuldigungs-Schrift  derer  von  Zurich 
an  ihre  Mit-Eidgenossen  ihr  Verfahren  in  dem  Reformations-Werk  betref- 
fend,  2  xi.-xiv.  In  Fueslin's  Beitriige  zur  Gesch.  der  Ref.  des  Schiveitzer- 
landes,  bd.  i.  p.  301-323. 

f  Ilottinger,  &c.,  p.  188. 

J  Ibid.  p.  185.     Vogelin's  Jahrtafel  zu  Zwiugli's  Leben,  p.  44. 


188  HISTORY   OF*riIE 

granted  and  the  latter  refused.  Nothing  of  importance  seems 
to  have  resulted  from  this  measure :  the  tongue  of  slander 
continued  as  busy  as  before ;  and  if  one  calumny  -was  put 
down,  another  rose  up  in  its  place.* 

Embassies  were  despatched  also  to  the  cantons  of  Bern, 
Giants,  Schaffliausen,  and  AppcnzeU,  which  had  shown  more 
forbearance  toward  Zurich  than  the  other  confederates,  to 
solicit  their  kind  offices  against  the  hostile  feelings  of  the  other 
six  cantons,  to  the  end  that  the  threatened  dissolution  of  the 
confederacy  might  be  prevented,  and  toleration  obtained  for 
religious  diversities  in  their  diets.  They  suggested  that  a 
meeting  of  these  cantons,  together  with  Basel  and  Soleure, 
be  held  for  conference  on  these  subjects,  previous  to  the 
assembling  of  the  other  cantons,  and  wished  Bern,  particu- 
larly, to  use  her  influence  for  that  object.  Schaffhausen 
professed  a  disposition  to  come  into  the  measure.  Crlarus 
gave  assurances  of  her  pacific  intentions  toward  Zurich,  but 
expressed  her  strong  dislike  to  the  dishonor  done  to  the  sacred 
images,  and  admonished  her,  as  the  first  among  the  confede- 
rated states,  to  consider  what  was  due  to  her  own  honor. 
Bern  hesitated  about  the  propriety  of  the  proposed  meeting, 
but  would  not  object  to  it  if  it  were  acceptable  to  others. 
Appenzell  was  wholly  favorable  to  the  proposition.  From 
the  answer  of  Bern,  it  may  be  inferred  that  the  other  cantons 
disapproved  it.  No  such  meeting  appears  to  have  taken 
place.f 

To  the  great  surprise  of  the  Reformed,  the  popish  cantons 
now  proposed  a  public  disputation  on  the  controverted  doc- 
trines. The  bishops  had  constantly  affirmed  the  unlawfulness 
of  discussing  religious  doctrines  without  the  pope's  license, 
and  insisted  that  such  things  belonged  to  an  ecclesiastical 
council  and  the  learned  in  the  universities :  yet,  as  Zurich 
had  always  invited  discussion,  and  promised  to  yield  if  she 
were  proved  to  be  in  error,  it  Avas  not  easy,  especially  after 
her  recent  triumphs,  to  satisfy  the  people  that  she  was  wholly 

*  Hottinger,  &c.,  p.  184,  &c.  f  Ibid.  p.  191. 


GERMAN   REFORMED   CHURCff.  189 

wroiK^,  unless  she  were  van(|uishcd  in  such  a  trial.  The 
bishops,  therefore,  now  set  aside  the  principle  for  which  they 
had  so  earnestly  contended,  and  resolved  to  have  a  public 
relio-ious  disputation ;  for  which,  however,  it  was  necessary  to 
secure  a  favorable  issue.  For  this  purpose,  they  engaged  the 
service  of  the  celebrated  Johann  Meyer  von  Eck,  usually 
known  as  John  Eck,  or  Eckius,  chancellor  and  professor  in 
the  university  of  Ingoldstadt,  in  Bavaria.  He  was  intimately 
conversant  with  the  scholastic  theology,  the  decrees  of  coun- 
cils and  of  popes,  and  the  writings  of  the  fathers,  but  less 
acquainted  with  the  Holy  Scriptures.  He  was  also  eminently 
skilled  in  the  arts  of  controversy,  and  had  distinguished  him- 
self in  a  disputation  of  three  weeks'  continuance  with  Luther 
and  Carlstadt,  at  Lcipsic,  in  1519,  where,  in  the  judgment  of 
the  Papists,  he  bore  away  the  palm  of  victory.  For  the  same 
purpose,  they  resolved  that  the  disputation  should  be  held 
before  judges  of  their  own  appointment,  and  in  a  place  like 
Liizern  or  Baden,  both  of  which  were  zealously  devoted  to 
the  cause  of  Romanism. 

In  concert  with  these  cantons,  Eckius  addressed  a  letter  to 
a  diet  assembled  at  Baden,  dated  August  17,  1524,  directed 
against  Zwingle  and  his  doctrine.  This  letter  the  diet  for- 
warded to  the  reformer,  who  replied  to  it  through  the  same 
channel.  In  September  following,  a  second  letter  was  written 
by  Eckius  to  a  diet  assembled  at  Frauenfeld,'^  in  which  he 
proposed  to  dispute  with  Zwingle  at  Baden  or  Luzern,  of 
which  he  spoke  as  impartial  places,  on  the  condition  that  the 
confederates  appoint  judges ;  that  a  passport  be  given  him 
for  his  protection  ;  that  this  passport  should  be  valid  until 
the  termination  of  the  contest,  when  he  would  submit  to  the 
pleasure  of  the  confederates,  provided  Zwingle  would  do  the 
same.  His  intention,  he  said,  was  not  to  defend  the  abuses 
of  the  clergy,  be  they  popes,  bishops,  priests,  or  regulars,  but 


*  This  was  a  diet  of  the  cantons  who  possessed  the  sovereignty  of  Thur- 
gau,  and  were  assembled  to  transact  the  business  of  that  pi-oviuce.  They 
were  nine  in  number,  exclusive  of  Zurich. 


190  *         HISTORY   OF   THE 

to  aid  in  removing  them.  He  did  not  hope  to  reform  Zwin- 
gle,  but  sought  only  to  preserve  the  confederates,  for  whom 
he  entertained  a  great  aifection,  from  the  seductions  of  an 
embellished  deceptions  heresy.  The  disputations  held  in 
Zurich  furnished  the  reason,  he  said,  why  he  could  not  let 
those  of  Zurich  be  his  judges  ;  but  he  trusted  in  God  and  his 
worthy  mother,  that  the  honest  inhabitants  of  that  city  would, 
in  a  little  time,  demean  themselves  so  Christian-like,  that  they 
Avould  rather  be  Turks  than  Lutherans.  The  confederates, 
he  added,  should  not  be  dissuaded  from  the  proposed  disputa- 
tion by  the  plea  that  they  had  no  authority ;  for,  in  the  time 
of  Constantius,  Athanasius  and  Arius  had  disputed  before 
Probus,  governor  of  Syria,  who  was  not  of  the  Catholic  faith. 
This  letter  was  transmitted  to  Zwingle  by  the  diet.  In 
compliance  with  the  request  of  the  council  of  Zurich,  he 
replied  to  it,  in  a  work  addressed  to  them,  under  the  title, 
Aiisiver  of  Zwingle  to  the  honorable  council  of  Zurich,  con- 
cerning the  writing  of  JEckius,  and  the  proposal  of  the  nine 
cantons  at  Frauenfeld.  In  this  reply,  the  reformer  says : 
"Eckius  is  not  moved  to  this  disputation  by  a  love  to  the 
word  of  God,  about  which  he  cares  nothing,  nor  by  any  honest 
design ;  he  intends  not  to  elucidate  the  truth,  but  to  obscure 
it,  and,  like  Simon,  to  bewitch  the  simple.  If  Zwingle  be 
guilty  of  many  heresies,  why  does  not  Eckius  iiyite  to  him,  or 
publish  books  against  him,  to  expose  his  heresies  ?  If  he 
wishes  to  prove  him  a  deceiver,  why  not  do  it  in  Zurich,  in 
the  church  which  he  is  said  to  have  deceived  ?  Why  does  he 
not  accuse  him  to  his  government,  and  endeavor  to  convict 
him  there  ?  The  way  is  open  for  him.  Here  Zwingle.  will 
always  be  ready  to  answer  him.  This  government  has  often 
invited  every  one,  who  thinks  himself  able,  to  undeceive  it. 
Eckius  is  like  the  physician,  who,  to  cure  a  headache,  would 
apply  his  plaster  to  the  knee.  Neither  is  Eckius  moved  by 
love  to  the  confederates,  of  whom  he  spoke  reproachfully  at 
Frihurg  and  Rome.  It  is  not  meet  that  the  confederates 
should  be  judges  of  the  disputation  ;  for  which  reason,  Zwingle 
refused,  in  those  held  in  Zurich,  to  concede  that  authority 


GERMAN   REFORMED    CHURCH.  191 

either  to  tlie  bishop  or  the  council.  To  sit  as  judge  upon  the 
word  of  God,  is  to  subject  the  Deity  to  man.  Let  Eckius 
and  the  other  confederates  come  to  Zurich.  Let  him  hear 
the  Scriptures  upon  which  Zwingle  rests  his  doctrine,  produce 
his  counter  testimonies  from  the  Scriptures,  and  demonstrate 
their  force.  On  these  conditions,  ZAvingle  can  well  endure 
that  the  first  who  shall  say  any  thing  without  authority  from 
the  Scripture  shall  be  severely  punished.  The  ancient  faith, 
for  which  Eckius  contends,  is  the  Roman  faith.  But  no  faith 
is  older  than  that  which  is  based  upon  God  and  Christ,  and 
no  pillar  of  faith  more  ancient  than  the  writings  of  Moses  and 
the  prophets." 

"It  is  strange,"  he  continues,  "that  the  Papists  them- 
selves are  now  pressing  for  a  disputation ;  for  all  the  world 
knows  that  the  bishops  of  Constance  and  Basel  did  not  attend 
those  of  Zurich;  and  recently,  when  disputations  were  desired 
in  Appenzell,  Basel,  and  Coire,  they  resisted  them.  The 
confederates  forbade  their  clergy  to  attend  them  under  the 
penalty  of  expulsion  from  their  benefices ;  and  the  emperor 
denounced  severe  punishments  upon  all  who  should  be  found 
there.  Now  all  these  understand  one  another,  and  want 
Zwingle  to  dispute  with  a  man  whom  he  does  not  know,  and 
Avith  whom  he  has  had  no  strife.  The  places  that  are  selected 
for  the  contest  arc  those  in  which  Zwingle's  doctrine  has 
been  condemned,  and  his  writings  are  interdicted,  and  where 
the  populace  have  burnt  him  in  efiigy ;  and  the  six  cantons, 
that  have  already  bound  themselves  to  abide  in  the  faith  of 
Rome,  are  to  be  his  judges  !  He  had  been  repeatedly  warned, 
if  a  safe  conduct  were  offered  him,  to  put  little  trust  in  it. 
They  sought  only  Zwingle's  death.  If  this  were  accomplished, 
the  disputation  would  soon  be  at  an  end.  Both  Zwingle  and 
Zurich  had  always  invited  an  investigation  of  the  existing 
religious  dissensions,  but  the  disputation  proposed  by  Eckius 
was  neither  reasonable  nor  honest.  He  would,  however,  not 
object  to  meet  Eckius  in  Schaffhausen  or  St.  Grail." 

These  and  other  reasons,  moved  the  council  to  resolve  that 
Zwingle  should  not  go  to  Baden  or  Luzern,  and  to  invite 


192  HISTORY   OP   THE 

Eckius  and  his  party  to  meet  him  in  Zurich,  where  they 
pledged  themselves  for  his  safety,  ■whether  he  were  victorious 
or  not  in  the  contest.  They  sent  Zwingle's  answer  to  the 
confederates  assembled  in  a  diet  at  Luzern,  who  refused  to 
receive  it.  At  the  same  time,  they  despatched  an  express, 
with  a  letter  of  invitation  and  a  passport  to  and  from  Zurich, 
to  Eckius  at  Ingoldstaclt ;  to  which  Eckius  gave  no  answer, 
except  to  say  to  the  messenger,  that  he  would  await  the  de- 
cision of  the  confederates  as  to  the  place  of  meeting. 

At  another  diet,  held  at  Frauenfeld,  it  was  resolved  that 
the  disputation  should  be  held  at  Baden.  A  safe  conduct  was 
to  be  granted  to  both  the  champions,  with  this  proviso,  that 
the  victor  should  be  protected  by  it  until  he  returned  to  his 
own  place ;  but  the  vanquished  should  be  held  responsible  for 
his  errors,  and  be  dealt  with  as  reason  and  justice  would 
demand.  After  the  several  cantons  should  have  approved  the 
choice  of  the  place,  Zurich  should  be  required  to  send  Zwingle 
there,  because  a  man  was  now  found  who  undertook  to  convict 
him  of  error,  which  Zwingle  had  so  often  professed  to  desire. 
The  deputies  of  Zurich  protested  against  the  selection  of 
Baden  as  the  place ;  and  here  the  matter  rested  for  the 
present.* 

Another  measure  to  which  the  confederates  now  resorted, 
with  the  design  of  arresting  the  progress  of  the  evangelical 
doctrines,  was  a  proposition  for  a  reformation  of  the  church. 
They,  as  well  as  all  the  states  of  Europe,  had  frequently 
acknowledged  its  necessity,  and  demanded  it  from  their  spirit- 
ual rulers.  But  they  thought  only  of  a  reformation  of  the 
clerical  body,  whose  encroachments,  oppressions,  and  vices 
were  the  subjects  of  universal  complaint,  and  did  not  contem- 
plate any  change  in  the  doctrine  or  the  ceremonies  of  the 
church.  They  expected  this  reformation  from  a  general  coun- 
cil, which  would  represent  the  whole  church,  and  pronounce 
her  infallible  judgment.  They  held  that,  in  a  case  of  neces- 
sity, secular  governments  might  reform  the  clergy  ad  interim, 

*  Hottinger,  &c.,  p.  19G,  &c.     Voegelin's  Jahrtafel,  &c.,  p.  4G. 


GERMAN   REFORMED   CHURCH.  193 

until  the  meeting  of  a  general  council;  but  they  did  not 
imao-ine  that  they  possessed  authority  to  meddle  with  doctrines 
and  rites  which  the  church  had  sanctioned;  nor  did  they 
concede  such  an  authority  to  any  thing  short  of  a  council  that 
would  be,  as  they  thought,  under  the  infallible  guidance  of 
the  Holy  Ghost,  or  to  the  pope  as  the  vicar  of  Christ.  Ilcnce 
they  viewed  the  reformation  of  Luther  and  Zwingle,  especially 
that  of  the  latter,  which  swept  away  so  much  of  the  doctrines 
and  ceremonies  of  the  church,  as  a  most  audacious  and  intole- 
rable impiety  and  presumption.  But  they  believed  that  the 
occasion  of  all  this  mischief  was  furnished  by  the  abuses  of 
the  clerical  order,  which,  while  they  disgusted  every  one,  and 
prepared  the  minds  of  many  for  a  change,  aroused  the  indigna- 
tion and  inflamed  the  zeal  of  self-constituted  reformers  ;  and, 
seeing  the  tardiness  of  the  rulers  of  the  church,  notwithstand- 
ing the  urgency  of  the  case,  they  resolved  to  undertake  a 
provisional  reformation  themselves,  in  the  hope  of  satisfying 
the  public  mind,  and  arresting  the  desire  of  change.  Accord- 
ingly, a  diet  assembled  at  Luzern,  in  the  month  of  November, 
1524,  in  which  nine  cantons  and  the  county  of  Valais,  an  ally 
of  Bern,  were  represented,  (the  cantons  of  Zurich,  Basel, 
ScJiaffhausen,  and  Appenzell  being  absent,)  and  a  project  of 
reformation  was  adopted.  In  their  introduction  to  this  pro- 
ject they  say :  "  Inasmuch  as  the  holy  sacraments,  the  most 
venerable  virgin  Mary,  and  the  beloved  saints  are  twitted, 
contemned,  and  scoffed  at  by  the  Zwingleans ;  the  ordinances, 
statutes,  and  punishments  of  the  holy  church  are  disregarded, 
so  that  man,  who  is  prone  to  evil,  may  live  according  to  his 
pleasure,  and  every  one  may  have  a  faith  of  his  own  making ; 
and  finally,  as  the  supreme  spiritual  shepherd  and  the  spirit- 
ual rulers  of  the  church  are  sleeping  in  the  midst  of  these 
distresses,  we  have  deemed  it  necessary  to  establish  the  follow- 
ing articles  until  the  discord  be  removed  by  a  general  council, 
or  by  another  competent  assembly,  in  which  the  confederates 
will  be  represented." 

In  their  project,  they  first  guard  the  faith  and  worship  of 
the  church  as  it  was  then  established.     "No  one,"  said  they, 
R  25 


194  HISTORY   OF   THE 

shall  speak,  dispute,  or  write  against  the  twelve  articles  of  the 
creed,  nor  against  the  seven  sacraments  appointed  by  Christ 
and  the  church,  nor  use  or  communicate  the  sacrifice  of  the 
mass  otherwise  than  the  church  has  ordained  and  observed, 
'nor  receive  it,  or  desire  it,  in  both  kinds,  contrary  to  the 
appointment  of  the  church."  They  pledge  themselves  to 
abide  in  the  statutes  and  usages,  which,  they  say,  have  come 
down'  from  the  holy  fathers,  as  fasting,  prayer,  confession, 
penance,  singing  and  reading,  holidays,  pilgrimages,  ofi'erings, 
abstinence  from  flesh  on  fast-days,  &c.  They  enjoin  that  all 
shall  believe  that  we  are  benefited  and  obtain  grace  from 
God  by  the  intercession  of  our  beloved  lady  and  the  saints. 
Images,  they  say,  shall  not  be  removed  from  the  churches ; 
no  one  shall  be  permitted  to  preach  within  their  dominion  who 
has  not  been  examined  and  ordained  by  his  spiritual  ordinary ; 
their  preachers  shall  teach  the  Holy  Scriptures  of  the  Old 
and  New  Testaments  in  the  right  sense,  as  the  old  teachers 
have  done,  undoubtedly  by  the  inspiration  of  the  Holy  Ghost, 
which  sense  the  church  has  received,  and  her  doctrine  allows ; 
in  it  alone  shall  every  one  seek  salvation  and  edification  of 
life,  and  against  all  doctrines  which  the  church  has  not  ad- 
mitted he  shall  be  on  his  guard.  Here  the  church  is  raised 
above  the  written  word.  Her  doctrine  is  made  the  only  rule 
for  the  interpretation  of  the  Bible.  Whatever  the  words  of 
the  sacred  oracles  may  be,  no  sense  is  allowed  to  be  drawn 
from  them  that  is  at  variance  with  what  the  church  actually 
holds  and  sanctions.  This  is  exactly  the  opposite  of  Zwingle's 
principle  :  The  authority  of  the  Scripture  is  above  all  authority. 
It  is,  however,  not  so  much  at  variance  with  the  rule  of  secta- 
rian Protestants  of  later  times. 

After  thus  declaring  their  continued  allegiance  to  the  church, 
they  bring  forward  their  articles  of  reformation,  which  are  as 
follows  :  "  Our  preachers  and  curators  of  souls  shall  not  addict 
themselves  to  covetousness,  as  they  have  frequently  done. 
They  shall,  for  example,  communicate  to  us  and  our  families 
the  holy  sacraments  according  to  Christian  order,  and  shall 
not  withhold  them  for  want  of  money.     Nevertheless,  the 


GERMAN   REFORMED    CHURCH.  196 

rio-hts  of  the  pastorate  in  every  place  shall  be  respected,  and 
what  is  due  to  the  pastor  and  sexton  by  ancient  custom  shall 
be  paid ;  but  if  a  preacher  be  too  rigid  therein,  the  secular 
government  shall  determine  the  case,  in  order  that  the  common 
man  be  not  overreached.  Priests  of  every  rank  shall  demean 
themselves  honorably  and  piously,  and  conform  to  the  terms 
of  their  benefices  and  the  rules  of  their  convents,  and  give  a 
good  example  to  us  laymen ;  for  henceforth  we  will  not  suffer 
and  endure  what  we  have  heretofore  borne.  Every  pastor 
shall  attend  to  his  dying  parishioners,  to  watch  over  and  com- 
fort them,  &c.  As  a  great  abuse  has  prevailed  in  a  priest's 
having  two  or  more  pastorates,  which  he  has  lent  to  others, 
and  taking  their  income  though  absent  from  them,  by  which 
practice  the  parishioners  have  been  ill  provided  for,  we  will 
no  longer  suffer  it :  no  priest  shall  have  more  than  one  pastor- 
ate ;  every  priest  shall  reside  in  his  parish,  and  no  payment 
of  income  shall  be  either  made  to  or  received  by  an  absentee. 
In  like  manner,  every  priest  who  has  a  chaplaincy  shall  reside 
in  his  benefice.  As  to  the  compulsory  process  of  the  spiritual 
courts  and  the  ban,  we  have  considered  and  ordered,  at  this 
time,  seeing  that  the  state  of  things  is  so  precarious,  and  no- 
body cares  any  thing  for  them,  that  no  cleric  shall  cite  a 
layman,  nor  a  layman  a  cleric,  nor  one  layman  another,  before 
the  spiritual  court,  whether  it  be  for  debt,  or  scandal,  or  evil 
speaking,  or  for  interest,  tythes,  rents,  or  ground-rents,  or 
any  temporal  and  secular  matters,  except  matrimonial  affairs, 
the  holy  sacraments,  convents,  churches,  and  infidelity.  These 
we  leave  to  the  spiritual  judge,  with  the  understanding  that 
matrimonial  affairs,  and  other  matters  for  which  we  laymen 
might  be  cited  before  the  spiritual  courts,  shall  come  in  the 
first  instance  before  the  secular  judge,  and  be  by  him  adjudi- 
cated, or  referred  to  the  spiritual  judge.  In  the  spiritual 
court,  every  thing  shall  be  spoken  and  written  in  German,  so 
that  laymen,  also,  may  hear  and  understand  the  transactions. 
In  future  no  indulgences  shall  be  sold.  While  the  popes  and 
bishops  reserve  to  themselves  the  power  of  absolving  from 
certain   sins,   and  refuse   in  such  cases   to  grant  absolution 


196  HISTORY   OF  THE 

unless  they  are  ■well  paid  for  it ;  and  while  they  refuse  dis- 
pensations where  they  are  necessary,  in  things  that  are  honor- 
able and  becoming,  unless  the  favor  be  balanced  with  money; 
it  is  our  opinion  that  what  popes  and  bishops  grant  only  for 
money,  our  pastors  should  grant  without  money,  irrespective 
of  papal  or  episcopal  authority,  until  otherwise  directed.  The 
clergy  shall  not  move  the  sick  to  devise  legacies  to  them. 
The  secular  government  has  authority  and  right  to  proceed 
against  its  clerics  who  demean  themselves  very  improperly  and 
dishonorably,  and  also  to  subject  them  to  all  the  burdens 
which  are  borne  by  other  subjects  of  the  city  and  country ; 
because  this  is  in  accordance  with  the  word  of  God,  any  thing 
in  the  canon  law  to  the  contrary  notwithstanding."* 

This  project  was  accepted  only  by  the  single  canton  of 
Bern.  The  other  cantons,  trusting  to  the  pope's  promise  of 
soon  calling  a  general  council,  resolved  to  await  its  meeting, 
and  contented  themselves  for  the  present  with  the  nineteen 
articles  which  they  had  adopted  at  the  commencement  of  the 
year.  It  pleased  no  party :  the  Reformed  saw  nothing  in  it 
that  deserved  their  regard,  and  to  the  Papist  it  seemed  too 
much  to  be  attempted  without  the  previous  sanction  of  a 
general  council. 

The  same  diet,  looking  forward  to  an  eventual  rupture  with 
Zurich,  sought  to  unite  the  whole  strength  of  the  Papist 
interest  against  her.  With  this  view,  they  attached  to  their 
cause  the  county  of  Valais,  to  which  they  represented  "  that 
Zurich  had  fallen  into  the  Lutheran  sect  and  bad  misbelief. 
She  had  taken  away  from  the  churches  the  images  and  divine 
garnitures,  and  had  annihilated  all  good  ordinances  and 
usages,  which  their  forefathers  had  observed  for  centuries. 
This  Lutheran  or  Zwinglian  sect  served  to  instigate  the  com- 
mon people  against  all  government :  it  rent  asunder  and 
scorned  all  obedience,  order,  and  civil  authority,  and  would 
undoubtedly  lead  to  a  dissolution  of  the  confederacy."  We 
can  hardly  suppose  that  Ba-n  and  Crlarus,  who  were  repre- 

*  Hottinger,  &c.,  p.  200,  &c. 


GERMAN   REFORMED    CHURCH.  197 

sented  in  this  diet,  held  these  extravagant  opinions:  they 
■were  the  opinions  of  the  majority,  Avhich  was  composed  of  the 
rigidly  popish  cantons.* 

The  convents  of  monks  in  Zurich,  as  we  observed  at  page 
130,  were  the  places  of  resort  and  of  secret  cabals  for  the  dis- 
contented adherents  of  the  old  superstition.  These  internal  . 
enemies  were  encouraged  by  the  menacing  attitude  of  the 
other  cantons,  and  their  assemblies  and  intrigues  assumed  a 
more  serious  importance  amidst  the  dangers  that  threatened 
the  Reformation  from  without.  The  council,  therefore,  deter- 
mined to  prevent  the  mischief  by  dissolving  them  at  once. 
On  the  third  day  of  November,  according  to  Voegelin,  or  the 
third  of  December,  according  to  Hettinger,  several  of  the 
council,  attended  by  a  body  of  police-officers,  went  to  the 
convents  of  the  Dominicans  and  the  Augustinians,  and  con- 
ducted all  their  inmates  to  the  convent  of  the  Franciscans. 
The  younger  monks  were  put  out  to  learn  handicrafts,  the 
more  promising  were  placed  at  school  to  be  educated  for  the 
Christian  ministry,  and  the  aged  were  left  to  end  their  days 
in  the  monastery,  where  the  three  orders  lived  together 
without  distinction.  The  vacated  convents,  as  also  those  of 
several  sisterhoods,  were  applied  to  useful  public  objects,  and 
the  church  of  the  Dominicans  was  converted  into  the  fourth 
parish  church  for  the  accommodation  of  the  citizens. 

About  the  same  time,  (Nov.  30,  or  Dec.  5, 1524,)  the  abbess 
of  Lady-Minster,  or  Notre  Dame,  (Frau-Munster,)  Catherine 
von  Zimbern,  surrendered  to  the  council  her  convent,  with  all  its 
property  and  privileges,  among  which  were  the  right  of  coin- 
ing money,  and  of  appointing  to  certain  judicial  offices.  The 
conditions  of  the  gift  were  that  the  funds  of  the  institution 
should  be  applied  to  the  advancement  of  the  honor  of  God, 
the  salvation  of  men,  and  the  temporal  relief  of  the  poor.  The 
abbess  reserved  to  herself  an  annual  pension  during  her  life. 
The  gift  was  gratefully  accepted,  and  a  committee  was 
appointed  to  convey  to  the  abbess  the  thanks  of  the  council. 


*  Hottinger,  &c.,  p.  200,  &c 


198  HISTORY   OP  T^E 

She  continued  to  reside  in  the  convent  until  her  marriage, 
several  years  afterward.  Her  husband  was  Eberhard  von 
Rischbach,  who,  in  1531,  fell  a  martyr  to  the  cause  of  the 
Reformation,  in  the  fatal  battle  of  Cappel.  A  part  of  the 
edifice  was  occupied  as  a  public  office,  and  another  was  appro- 
priated to  studious  youth,  who  were  supported  at  the  public 
expense.* 

The  most  injurious  charge,  which  the  confederates  urged 
against  the  doctrine  of  the  reformers,  was  that  of  which  an 
example  is  given  above,  in  their  representation  to  the  govern- 
ment of  Valais  ;  namely,  that  this  doctrine  tended  to  incite 
the  people  against  their  rulers,,  to  dissolve  the  bonds  of  civil 
society,  and  to  plunge  the  state  into  anarchy  and  disorder. 
This  serious  charge,  which  w^as  extensively  circulated,  created 
much  alarm  in  the  Papist  cantons,  and  prepared  the  people 
for  any  measures  which  their  governments  might  adopt,  both 
to  prevent  the  introduction  of  so  pernicious  a  doctrine  among 
themselves,  and  to  suppress  it  where  it  had  already  found 
adherents.  It  was  of  vital  importance  that  this  malignant 
calumny  should  be  met  and  disproved;  but,  as  'Zwingle's 
writings  were  prohibited  in  those  cantons  in  which  the  refuta- 
tion was  most  needed,  it  seemed  a  hopeless  labor  to  undertake 
the  required  vindication.  Yet,  notwithstanding  this  dis- 
couragement, the  reformer  wrote  a  defence  of  his  doctrine  in 
a  work  entitled,  "  Who  they  are  that  cause  insurrections,  and 
who  are  the  true  insurgents."  It  was  dedicated  to  the  church 
in  Muhlhausen,  an  ally  of  the  confederates,  but  was  not  pub- 
lislied  until  the  following  year.f 

I  «■  Hottinger,  -kc,  p.  206. 

f  Voegelin,  &c.,  p.  47. 


GERMAN   REFORMED    CHURCH.  199 


CHAPTER    11. 

INSURRECTIONS  OF  THE  PEASANTRY  IN  GERMANY,  AND  RISE  OP  TILE 
ANABAPTISTS. 

The  year  1525  opened  upon  Zurich  inauspieiously  to  the 
cause  of  her  reformation  :  dark  clouds  arose  in  her  horizon, 
that  thickened  and  spread  as  the  year  advanced,  portending 
a  desolating  tempest,  and  creating  perplexity  and  alarm  in 
many  an  anxious  mind.  First  among  these  new  troubles  was 
the  insurrectionary  movement  of  the  peasantry  and  the  wild 
and  reckless  fanaticism  of  the  Anabaptists,  that  endangered 
all  existing  order  and  government,  and  threatened  to  involve 
the  nascent  truth  in  a  common  ruin  with  established  error. 

Insurrections  of  the  suffering  peasantry  against  their  op- 
pressors were  not  a  new  occurrence.  As  early  as  the  year 
1491,  the  peasants  of  the  Netherlands  and  of  Suabia  rose  in 
arms  against  their  petty  sovereigns ;  those  of  the  bishopric 
of  Spire  in  1503 ;  those  of  Wirtemherg  in  1514 ;  and  those 
of  Carinthia  in  1515.  Such  events  were  to  be  expected  from 
this  class  of  people,  in  the  wretched  condition  of  thraldom  and 
oppression  to  which  they  had  been  reduced.  The  rigid  slavery 
of  former  times  had,  indeed,  in  a  measure  ceased;  but  the 
arbitrary  imposition  of  gratuitous  labor,  joined  with  grinding 
taxation,  were  intolerable,  and  overwhelmed  many  with  hope- 
less ruin.  The  taxes,  moreover,  which,  in  those  times,  fell 
almost  wholly  upon  the  country  and  the  small  towns,  rose 
continually  as  the  growing  profusion  and  extravagance  of  the 
nobles  and  princes  demanded  increased  supplies. 

Although  the  spirit  of  these  people  might  be  borne  down 
by  such  exhausting  burdens,  they  still  felt  that  they  were 
men,  and  possessed  rights  that  belonged  to  their  nature,  and 
of  which  no  human  power  could  justly  deprive  them :  they 
still  had  some  idea  of  the  sweets  of  that  liberty  which  they 


200  HISTORY   OF   THE 

were  not  permitted  to  enjoy,  and  of  the  wrongs  wliich  they 
suflFered  in  the  tyranny  that  bowed  them  down  to  the  ground. 
There  is  a  point  of  depression  from  which  the  humblest  begin 
to  rise  when  the  faintest  hope  inspires  them,  and  a  measure 
of  endurance  beyond  which  despair  itself  creates  a  reaction, 
and  exerts,  in  a  convulsive  effort,  all  that  remains  of  bodily 
and  of  mental  power. 

It  was  in  the  state  of  mind  which  their  wrongs  were  adapted 
to  produce  that  the  Reformation  found  the  peasants  of  Crer- 
many  and  the  neighboring  countries.  Its  doctrine  of  Christian 
liberty,  the  liberty  with  which  Christ  had  made  them  free, 
arrested  their  attention  and  fascinated  their  hearts.  It 
addressed  itself  to  men  of  all  classes,  and  made  itself  every 
man's  personal  concern:  it  invited  all  men  to  examine  for 
themselves,  to  inquire  into  the  grounds  of  religious  doctrines 
and  rites  that  were  hallowed  by  age  and  sanctioned  by  the 
highest  earthly  authority,  to  sit  in  judgment  upon  the  priest, 
upon  the  dignitary  of  the  church,  and  upon  the  pope  himself, 
that  god  on  earth,  before  whom  the  Christian  world  had 
trembled  and  bowed  down  with  the  profoundest  reverence. 
It  thus  elevated  the  poor  man,  taught  him  to  feel  his  dignity 
and  importance,  and  showed  him  a  common  ground  upon 
which  the  highest  was  not  above  him  ;  and  it  encouraged  him 
to  assert  his  rights,  and  to  demand  that  he  should  be  treated 
as  a  man,  and  not  as  a  mere  animal,  or  a  chattel. 

But  among  the  uncultivated  multitude,  very  few  were  able 
to  form  a  just  idea  of  the  proposed  reformation,  of  its  object, 
and  of  the  means  by  which  it  ought  to  be  effected  ;  or  to  con- 
ceive a  right  notion  of  the  liberty  which  the  gospel  proclaimed 
and  the  reformers  taught.  By  a  reformation,  they  understood 
'-in  overthrow  of  institutions  from  which  they  suffered  afflicting 
grievances ;  and  Christian  liberty  they  mistook  for  a  freedom 
from  vexatious  earthly  constraint,  not  a  deliverance  from 
spiritual  bondage :  and  as  to  the  mode  of  effecting  the  object, 
they  were  easily  persuaded  that  they  might  justly  wrest  from 
their  oppressors  by  force  what  they  refused  voluntarily  to 
yield. 


GERMAN   REFORMED   CnURCH.  201 

In  these  opinions  they  were  strengthened,  if  they  were  not 
at  first  led  to  embrace  them,  by  a  set  of  fanatics,  whom  Lu- 
ther styles,  in  derision,  "the  heavenly  prophets."  One  of 
these  was  the  notorious  Thomas  Munzer,  a  native  of  Stollherg 
in  Thuringia.  His  father  had  been  unjustly  executed  as  a 
criminal,  and  a  deep  sense  of  the  wrong  and  the  cruelty  of 
this  act  rankled  in  the  mind  of  the  bereaved  and  disconsolate 
orphan,  until  it  converted  him  into  an  implacable  enemy  of 
all  princes  and  rulers.  His  disposition  was  gloomy  and  fa- 
natical, but  a  hatred  of  princes  and  their  institutions  was  his 
ruling  passion,  that  gave  shape  and  color  to  all  his  opinions, 
and  direction  to  all  his  conduct.  He  persuaded  himself  that 
he  was  endowed  with  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  commissioned  to 
preach  the  gospel  to  all  mankind ;  that  he  was  divinely  called 
to  exterminate  sinners  and  their  rulers  from  the  earth,  and  to 
introduce  a  new  and  holy  kingdom,  into  which  none  but  saints 
should  be  admitted ;  that  all  men  should  be  equal,  the  institu- 
tion of  property  should  be  abolished,  and  every  thing  enjoyed 
in  common.  He  denounced  both  Luther  and  the  pope.  The 
latter,  he  said,  had  overburdened  men's  consciences  with 
ceremonies  ;  the  former  had,  indeed,  released  them  from  these 
burdens,  but  had,  nevertheless,  left  them  in  carnal  security, 
and  was  not  leading  them  in  the  spirit  to  God.  He  taught 
his  followers  to  macerate  their  bodies  by  fasting  and  mortifi- 
cation, to  wear  a  plain  garb,  to  be  of  a  sad  countenance,  to 
speak  little,  and  to  let  their  beards  grow.  They  might  then, 
he  said,  expect  a  sign  from  God,  and  be  admitted  to  familiar 
converse  with  him,  as  Abraham  and  Moses  were.  If  this 
favor  were  withheld,  they  might  expostulate  with  the  Deity, 
and  upbraid  him  with  his  promises.  This  expostulation  and 
upbraiding  would  be  pleasing  to  God,  as  a  proof  of  their  sin-  k. 
cerity,  and  would  ultimately  prevail  with  him  to  grant  them 
their  desire.  These  opinions  he  disseminated,  both  in  his 
preaching  and  in  writings  which  he  published,  from  the  year 
1523  to  the  end  of  his  career,  in  the  month  of  May,  1525 ; 
and  possessing  acceptable  pulpit-talents,  he  drew  large  audi- 
ences and  made  many  converts.     The  pious  reader  will  per- 


202  HISTORY   OP   THE 

ceive  tliat  lie  was  ignorant  of  the  true  doctrine  of  tlie  gospel, 
and  possessed  nothing  of  its  spirit. 

At  Zwickau,  a  town  of  3Iisnia,  he  joined  himself  to 
Nicholas  Stork  and  others,  who  rejected  infant-baptism,  and, 
professing  to  be  guided  by  inspirations  from  heaven,  thought 
themselves  called  to  urge  forward  the  Reformation,  which, 
they  believed,  Luther  conducted  too  cautiously  and  confined 
within  too  narrow  bounds.  Near  the  close  of  the  year  1521, 
Stork  and  several  of  his  associates  went  to  Witteyiherg,  while 
Luther  was  yet  in  the  Warthurg,  and  there  proclaimed  their 
mission  and  their  doctrine.  Their  high  pretensions  and  appa- 
rent sanctity  made  such  an  impression,  that  the  multitude 
revered  them  as  prophets.  Carlstadt  was  carried  away  by  the 
delusion,  and  both  Melancthon  and  Amsdorf  were  brought  to 
a  stand.  During  some  time,  they  carried  every  thing  before 
them  with  headlong  precipitation,  and  violent  agitations  dis- 
turbed the  community  ;  but  the  sudden  reappearance  of  Lu- 
ther in  Wittenberg,  in  March,  1522,  soon  put  an  end  to  these 
troubles,  and  compelled  their  authors  to  retire  from  the  city. 
It  is  uncertain  whether  Munzer  was  with  them.  We  find  him 
soon  afterward  at  Altstad,  a  town  of  Thuringia,  where  he  first 
announced  his  project  of  a  new  kingdom  of  saints,  and  pro- 
claimed his  commission  to  destroy  the  wicked  and  to  overturn 
the  thrones  of  princes.  The  elector,  who  had  tolerated  him 
in  all  his  former  extravagances,  now  expelled  him  from  his 
dominions.  He  went  to  Nuremberg  in  Franconia,  and,  being 
ordered  away  by  the  magistracy,  repaired  to  Basel,  and  thence 
to  Waldshut,  on  the  Rhine.  Here  he  met  with  Balthazar 
Hubmeyer  and  others,  citizens  of  Zurich,  whom  he  converted 
to  his  opinions.  We  find  him  next  at  3Iuhlhausen  in  Thurin- 
gia, where,  by  the  aid  of  some  disciples  who  were  residents 
of  the  city,  he  gained  over  the  populace,  and  was  elected  their 
pastor.  Assured  of  the  support  of  the  people,  he  deposed 
the  magistrates  and  filled  their  places  with  his  own  creatures, 
took  possession  of  the  convents  and  expelled  the  monks, 
abolished  the  rights  of  property  and  established  a  community 
of  goods,  modelled  every  thing  after  his  own  fancy,  acted  the 


GERMAN    REFORMED    CnURCH.  203 

sovereign,  and  called  upon  the  peasantry  of  the  country  to 
rise  in  arms  against  their  rulers.  Multitudes  flocked  to  him 
in  3Iuhlhausen,  allured  by  the  expectation  of  living  in  afflu- 
ence, without  labor,  at  the  expense  of  the  wealthy.  When  he 
heard  of  the  extensive  revolts  in  Suahia  and  Franconia,  where 
more  than  three  hundred  thousand  peasants  were  said  to  be 
under  arms,  he  resolved  to  take  the  field  and  to  propagate  his 
doctrine  by  the  sword,  believing  that  the  world  was  ripe  for 
the  change,  and  that  God  was  about  to  deliver  into  his  hands 
the  wicked  of  the  earth  and  their  princes  for  destruction.  All 
these  he  considered,  like  the  Canaanites  of  old,  divinely 
doomed  to  utter  extermination ;  and  he  endeavored  to  pre- 
pare his  followers  for  the  work  of  unsparing  slaughter,  by 
representing  as  addressed  to  them  the  commands  that  were 
given  to  the  Israelites  concerning  the  wicked  inhabitants  of 
the  land  of  promise.  "  Let  not  your  compassions  be  moved," 
said  he,  "if  Esau  would  give  you  good  words.  Regard  not 
the  misery  of  the  wicked  ;  they  will  entreat  you  so  tenderly, 
weep  and  supplicate  like  children ;  let  it  not  move  your  pity, 
as  God  commanded  Moses  in  Deuteronomy,  ch.  vii.,  and  has 

also  revealed  unto  us At  it — at  it — at  it,  while  the 

iron  is  hot.  Let  not  your  sword  grow  cold  from  blood. 
Strike  upon  the  anvil  of  Nimrod,  (the  nobility.)  Pink,  pank ; 
cast  down  the  tower  to  the  earth,  (the  rulers.)  It  is  not  pos- 
sible that  you  should  be  freed  from  the  fear  of  men  while  they 
live,"  &c.  So  said  he  to  his  followers,  in  his  published  ad- 
dresses to  them,  when  he  put  himself  at  their  head.* 

His  last  appearance  was  at  Frankenhausen,  near  MiiJil- 
hausen,  at  the  head  of  a  body  of  peasants  numbering  about 
eight  thousand  men.  They  occupied  an  advantageous  position 
near  the  town,  where  they  had  intrenched  themselves,  but 
were,  for  the  most  part,  unprovided  with  arms ;  an  undis- 
ciplined multitude,  destitute  of  leaders  that  were  acquainted 
with  the  art  of  war,  and  commanded  in  chief  by  an  insane 
and  desperate  fanatic.     Here  they  awaited  the  approach  of 

*  Luther's  Werke,  Leipzig,  Ausg.  theil  xix.  s.  289. 


204  HISTORY   OP   THE 

disciplined  forces,  led  by  Philip,  landgrave  of  Hesse,  Jolm,  the 
successor  of  Frederick,  elector  of  Saxony,  George,  duke  of 
Saxony,  and  Henry,  Philip,  and  Otho,  dukes  of  Brunswick. 
The  poor  peasants  were  alarmed  when  they  saw  the  numbers 
and  formidable  array  of  the  hostile  army,  and  addressed  to  its 
leaders  a  letter,  saying,  "  They  believed  in  Jesus  Christ,  and 
were  assembled,  not  to  harm  any  one,  nor  to  shed  blood,  but 
to  transact  divine  righteousness :  if  the  princes  were  of  the 
same  mind,  they  would  undertake  nothing  against  them." 
They  were  answered,  that  they  should  have  forgiveness  if  they 
would  deliver  up  their  leaders  and  return  to  their  duty ;  and 
a  young  nobleman  was  sent  with  a  flag  of  truce,  to  effect  an 
accommodation.  But  Munzer,  anxious  for  his  safety,  per- 
suaded them  that  God  would  appear  in  their  behalf,  as  he  had 
done  for  his  people  in  former  ages  ;  and  a  rainbow  just  then 
appearing  in  the  clouds,  and  being  the  emblem  they  bore  upon 
their  standard,  he  took  advantage  of  this  phenomenon,  and 
persuaded  them  that  God  was  giving  them  a  sign  from  heaven, 
to  assure  them,  in  the  moment  of  their  greatest  danger,  of 
their  certain  deliverance  from  their  dreaded  foe.  They  were 
wrought  into  a  frenzy  by  his  impassioned  harangue  and  this 
imagined  token  of  divine  succor.  The  offer  of  mercy  was  now 
despised ;  no  answer  was  given  to  those  from  whom  it  came, 
and  their  messenger  was  perfidiously  put  to  death,  ip  pursu- 
ance of  a  sentence  solemnly  pronounced  by  Munzer.  This 
perfidy  and  ferocious  defiance  kindled  the  wrath  of  the  princes, 
and,  in  a  transport  of  rage,  they  immediately  led  on  their 
troops  to  a  fierce  attack.  Amidst  a  heavy  cannonade,  and 
the  rapid  advance  of  their  enemy,  the  deluded  fanatics  stood, 
without  resistance,  looking  toward  heaven,  for  the  expected 
interposition  of  God,  and  sung  the  hymn.  Nun  bitten  wir  den 
Heiligeii  Greist,  &c.,  {Now  we  pray  the  Holy  Ghost,  &c.) 
They  stood,  and  sang,  and  cherished  their  hope,  until  the 
assailants,  having  passed  their  defences,  thrust  their  weapons 
through  the  first,  and  the  next,  while  no  hand  of  God  appeared, 
and  the  streaming  blood  and  the  dying  groans  of  those  that 
fell,  opened,  at  length,  the  eyes  of  the  deluded  multitude  upon 


GERMAN   REFORMED    CHURCH.  205 

their  fatal  error.  Now  they  broke  and  fled  in  inexpressible 
terror  and  confusion.  A  dreadful  slaughter  ensued.  No 
quarter  was  given.  A  small  body,  who  fought  in  despair, 
having  made  a  brief  resistance,  by  which  a  few  of  the  soldiers 
were  killed,  the  rage  of  the  victors  rose  into  fury,  and  they 
pursued  the  affrighted  fugitives  into  every  hiding-place  where 
they  hoped  for  safety,  and  killed  them  while  piteously  implor- 
ing their  compassion.  About  five  thousand  were  left  dead 
upon  the  field.  After  the  battle,  several  hundred  were  taken 
from  their  concealment,  and  executed  on  the  same  and  the 
succeeding  day.  It  was  a  cruel  vengeance,  worthy  only  of  a 
ferocious  age.  Munzer,  who  had  boasted  of  his  interest  with 
the  Deity,  and  promised  to  catch  every  bullet  in  his  sleeve, 
was  among  those  who  fled.  He  was  discovered  in  bed,  at  a 
public  inn,  feigning  sickness,  and  affecting  to  be  wholly  igno- 
rant of  the  transactions  of  the  preceding  day.  He  was  ex- 
amined by  torture,  agreeably  to  the  barbarous  custom  of  the 
times,  and  expiated  his  follies  and  his  crimes  on  the  scaffold, 
in  the  camp  of  the  princes,  before  Miihlliausen.  Before  his 
execution,  he  returned  to  the  bosom  of  the  church  of  Home, 
but  gave  no  evidence  of  genuine  repentance.*  His  trepidation 
at  the  place  of  execution  evinced  a  consciousness  of  guilt,  and 
was  a  proof  that  there  was  imposture  as  well  as  fanaticism  in 
his  character.  The  death  of  Munzer,  the  dispersion  of  his 
adherents,  the  overthrow  of  all  the  bands  of  revolted  peasants, 
and  the  terrible  vengeance  exacted  by  their  rulers,  put  an  end 
to  insurrections  for  the  present ;  but  there  was  left  in  people's 
minds  a  feeling  of  suppressed  but  bitter  enmity  against  their 
lords,  both  spiritual  and  secular ;  and  the  doctrines  they  had 
received  were  not  eradicated  by  the  blood  that  was  shed.f 

From  Germany/,  the  spirit  of  fanaticism  and  misrule  pene- 
trated into  Switzerland.  There  were  not  wanting  in  this 
country  combustible  materials  that  needed  only  a  spark  to 

*  Seckendorf  s  Gesch.  d.  Lutherth.,  col.  691. 

t  Hottiiiger,  &c.,  p.  204,  218,   &c.     Seckendorf,  &c.,  col.  451,  GOl,  G32, 
&c.,  677,  &c.    Luther's  Werke,  bd.  19,  s.  293,  &c.,Leipz.  Ausg.  Fulirman's 
Lex.  d.  Kirch.  Gesch.,  art.  Munzer. 
S 


206  HISTORY   OF  THE 

kindle  them  into  a  conflagration.  The  peasantry,  who  lived 
upon  the  lands  -which  belonged  to  churches  and  monasteries, 
had  long  groaned  under  the  burden  of  tythes  and  rents,  and 
of  fees  that  were  paid  to  these  institutions  for  every  spiritual 
function,  and  for  every  act  to  which  a  religious  aspect  could 
be  given,  besides  other  oppressive  exactions,  and  in  addition 
to  the  taxes  for  the  support  of  the  civil  government ;  and  they 
felt  their  burdens  more,  and  were  more  impatient  under  them, 
when  they  observed  how  their  hard  earnings  were  consumed, 
by  crowds  of  priests  and  monks,  in  a  voluptuous  and  profligate 
idleness,  and  how  they  were  treated  by  these  insolent  ecclesi- 
astics with  haughtiness  and  disdain.  Like  their  brethren  in 
G-ermany^  they  sighed  for  deliverance,  and  were  ready  to  rise 
against  their  oppressors,  as  soon  as  a  prospect  of  success 
should  appear,  or  the  sanctions  of  religion  should  give  firmness 
and  vigor  to  their  desire.  Intelligence  of  the  German  insur- 
rections, and  of  the  new  prophets  who  denounced  the  judg- 
ments of  heaven  upon  the  seats  of  power  and  iniquity,  furnished 
the  occasion,  and  gave  the  impulse  for  turbulent  risings  in  the 
canton  of  Zurich  and  other  portions  of  the  confederacy,  and 
for  clamorous  demands  of  redress.  But  the  prudent  measures 
of  government,  which  instituted  investigations  of  the  grounds 
of  these  complaints,  and  brought  the  authority  of  religion  to 
bear  upon  them,  the  control  which  the  government  had  already 
begun  to  exercise  over  the  clergy  and  their  institutions,  and 
their  sincere  determination  to  reform  all  existing  abuses, 
calmed  the  violence  of  the  malcontents,  and  prevented  farther 
outbreaks.  But  the  zealots  in  religious  innovation  were  more 
troublesome. 

A  numerous  class,  which  had  subsisted  under  the  papacy, 
and  had  conformed  to  the  established  worship  while  the  dread 
of  the  ecclesiastical  power  kept  them  in  check,  began  to 
manifest  their  character  when  the  spell  of  that  power  was 
broken,  and  liberty  of  thought  upon  every  subject  was  restored 
by  the  Reformation.  They  were  restless  spirits,  men  of  san- 
guine tempers,  possessing  more  excitability  than  intellect, 
and  governed  more  by  their  feelings  than  by  reason.     These 


GERMAN   REFORMED    CHURCH.  207 

men  were  discontented  with  the  tardy  movements  of  the  con- 
stituted authorities  in  abolishing  popish  superstitions,  and 
with  the  narrow  limits  within  which  the  Reformation  was 
confined.  Both  the  government  and  the  preachers  exerted 
themselves  in  vain  to  restrain  them  from  excesses.  In  some 
instances,  as  at  the  village  of  ZoIUkon,  they  took  the  law  and 
the  power  into  their  own  hands,  and  abolished  the  popish 
images  before  the  government  had  come  to  a  decision  respect- 
ing them.  All  these  men  were  fit  subjects  for  fanatical  ex- 
citement, and,  when  once  put  in  motion  by  some  external 
impulse,  were  not  likely  soon  to  stop. 

Munzer  came  into  contact  with  men  of  this  character  at 
Waldshut,  on  the  border  of  Switzerland,  and  kindled  in  their 
congenial  minds  something  of  his  own  enthusiasm  for  a  pure 
church,  a  theocratic  government,  and  divine  inspirations ; 
and  from  him  they  received  their  notions  on  the  subject  of 
infant-baptism.  Among  these  converts  were  Balthazar  Hub- 
meyer,  an  evangelical  preacher  and  pastor  of  a  church  in 
Waldshut,  Conrad  Grebel,  and  Felix  Mantz,  citizens  of  Zu- 
rich, who  were  men  of  education  and  of  respectability.  All 
these  became  distinguished  leaders  of  the  new  sect.  They 
did  not  at  first  act  out  the  whole  system  of  Munzer.  Their 
first  attempt  was  to  gain  over  the  reformers  to  their  party. 
For  this  purpose,  Grebel,  Mantz,  and  Simon  Stump,  pastor 
of  the  church  at  Hoeng,  urged  upon  Zwingle  and  Leo  Juda 
the  expediency  of  forming  a  church  of  saints,  into  which  no 
sinners  should  be  admitted,  where  a  perfect  equality  should 
reign,  all  things  should  be  common  to  all,  and  tythes,  rents, 
and  other  burdens  should  be  abolished.  The  reformers  replied 
by  showing  the  inconsistency  of  such  a  scheme  with  the  scrip- 
tural idea  of  the  church  of  Christ,  and  respectfully  declined 
to  entertain  it ;  in  consequence  of  which  the  disaffected  began 
to  hold  separate  meetings,  and  now  first  denounced  infant- 
baptism,  which  they  represented  as  a  popish  corruption  of  the 
church,  and  an  invention  of  the  devil.*     This  was,  at  this 

*  Zwingli's  Aussage  von  den  Wiedertaiifem,  &c.,  in  Fueslin's  Beitrlige  znr 
Reform.  Oesch.  des  Schweitzerlandes,  vol.  i.  p.  228,  and  note  45.     Ibid. 


208 


HISTORY   OF  THE 


time,  the  extent  of  their  public  dissent  from  the  established 
order  of  the  church.  Zwingle  sought  to  convince  them  of 
their  error,  and  in  his  conferences  with  them,  the  question 
was  only  whether  infant-baptism  was  consistent  with  the 
Scriptures;  not  whether  it  was  valid  where  it  had  been 
administered  to  subjects  in  infancy;  but  they  soon  went 
farther,  and,  carrying  out  their  principle,  maintained  the 
necessity  of  rebaptizing  those  who  had  received  infant- 
baptism.  Ilubmeyer  still  considered  infants  members  of  the 
church,  agreeably  to  Matt.  xix.  13,  14,  and  received  them  as 
such,  when  he  refused  to  baptize  them.*  His  own  account 
of  the  matter  is  this:  "Instead  of  baptizing  them,  I  convene 


p.  197,  note.  Grebel  and  Mantz  Tvere  previously  ill-disposed  toward  Zwingle, 
because  they  suspected  him  of  having  thwarted  them  in  their  plan  to  procure 
appointments  in  the  contemplated  seminary  in  Zurich.  The  council  and  the 
chajDier  had  agreed,  as  we  have  already  noticed,  that  the  income  of  some  of 
the  canonries  should  be  applied  to  the  support  of  learned  professors,  after 
the  decease  of  the  present  incumbents.  These  two  men  possessed  respectable 
acquirements,  particularly  in  the  Greek  and  the  Hebrew  languages,  and 
thought  themselves,  as  citizens  of  honorable  standing,  entitled  to  professor- 
ships in  these  departments.  But,  as  the  funds  would  not  become  available  for 
this  purpose  during  the  lifetime  of  the  incumbents,  it  was  impossible  to  meet 
their  wishes  immediately.  On  this  account,  a  beginning  was  first  made  with 
public  lectures  in  the  summer  of  1525,  when  Ceporinus,  who  had  previously 
taught  Hebrew  without  a  salary,  was  appointed  professor  in  that  department ; 
and  Rudolph  Collin,  who  was  soon  afterward  elected  Greek  professor,  taught 
several  years  without  a  compensation,  and  supported  himself,  in  the  mean 
time,  by  reading  lectures  iipon  Homer  to  a  private  class,  and  by  working  at 
the  business  of  rope-making !  Grebel  and  Mantz  could  not  wait  for  the 
convenient  season,  but  would  have  several  of  the  useless  canons  removed, 
and  themselves  put  in  their  places,  that  they  might  enjoy  both  the  dignity 
and  the  revenues  of  the  canonships,  and  wished  Zwingle  to  exert  his  influence 
in  the  council  and  in  the  chapter  to  have  such  an  arrangement  made.  This 
he  declined  to  do  ;  and,  as  they  thought  the  proposed  arrangement  practi- 
cable, and,  probably,  esteemed  it  right  also,  they  hated  Zwingle  for  refusing 
to  second  their  ambitious  project.  This  hostility  to  the  reformer  seems  to 
have  transferred  itself  to  his  Reformation,  and  to  have  the  more  predisposed 
their  minds  for  the  reception  of  Munzer's  opinions  on  baptism,  or  any  thing 
that  was  opposed  to  Zwingle's  system.  See  Fueslin's  Beitrage,yo\.  i.  p.  191-194, 
note  86. 

*  Gieseler's  Lehrb.  der  Kii-ch.  Gesch.,  vol.  iii.  p.  210,  note  60. 


GERMAN   REFORMED   CHURCH.  209 

the  church,  bringing  in  the  infant,  and,  in  the  vernacular 
tongue,  expound  the  gospel — '  Little  children  were  brought  to 
him,'  &c.     Thereupon,  the  name  being  given,  the  whole  church 

kneel  and  pray  for  the  little  one But  if  the  parents 

are  yet  infirm,  and  insist  upon  having  their  offspring  baptized, 
I  baptize  it.  In  practice,  I  am  weak  with  those  who  are  yet 
weak,  until  they  be  better  informed ;  but  in  doctrine,  I  do  not 
yield  the  smallest  particle."* 

The  practice  of  rebaptizing  was  introduced  by  Conrad 
Grebel  at  Zurich  ;  for,  although  the  doctrine  of  rebaptism 
was  taught  by  Munzer  in  Crermany,  the  practice  of  it  had  its 
origin  in  Zurich.^  where  Grebel  was  the  first  that  baptized 
anew  ;  and  the  first  subject  of  the  repetition  of  the  rite  was 
George  Blaurock  of  Coire,  who  styled  himself  "  George  of  the 
house  of  Jacob  of  Coire."  Afterwards  many  were  baptized 
in  Zollikon  by  Blaurock  and  Mantz,  and  the  practice  became 
general. t  This  practice  now  was  the  badge  of  the  new  sect ; 
and  they  were  hence  called  Anabaptists,  that  is  rehaptizers. 
The  rite  was  at  first  performed  by  sprinkling  or  affusion  ; 
which  appears  from  the  documents  published  by  Fueslin  in  his 
"Beitriige."  Immersion  was  also  introduced  by  Grebel.  Its 
first  subject  was  Wolfgang  Ulman  of  St.  Crall,  who  insisted 
on  being  baptized  in  that  mode,  and  was  accordingly  immersed 
by  Grebel,  in  the  Rhine  at  Schaffhausen-X  The  sect  had  no 
separate  order  of  ministers :  every  one  who  chose  might 
teach  and  administer  baptism  to  those  who  desired  it.§ 

Zwingle,  anxious  to  reclaim  them,  appointed  a  weekly  con- 
ference for  amicable  discussion  ;  but,  after  the  second  meeting, 
they  declined  any  farther  attendance.  At  the  outset,  they 
were  distinguished  by  a  strictly  moral  and  religious  deport- 
ment, avoiding  vicious  associations,  and  bearing  a  loud  and 
impressive  testimony  against  every  form  of  sinful  pleasure. 


*  Gieseler's  Lehrb.  der  Kirch.  Gesch.,  vol.  iii.  p.  210,  note  GO. 
f  Fueslin,  &c.,  vol.  ii.,  p.  838,  &c. 
X  Hottinger,  &c.,  p.  265. 
§  Fueslin,  &c.,  vol.  i.  p.  270,  note  57. 
8  2  27 


210  HISTORY   OF   THE 

Their  apparent  rectitude  and  sanctity  procured  for  them 
much  favor  with  the  people.  Many  were  induced  to  receive 
their  doctrines  and  their  baptism ;  and  among  these  were 
respectable  citizens  and  ministers  of  the  gospel  in  good  stand- 
ing. But  their  enthusiasm  grew  with  their  success,  and 
quickly  degenerated  into  a  ridiculous  and  frantic  fanaticism. 
They  were  particularly  numerous  in  the  parish  of  Zollikon, 
the  pastor  of  which  was  a  certain  John  Brodli,  a  ranting 
extravagant.  From  this  place,  a  raving  crowd  rushed  into 
the  capital,  being  covered  with  sacks,  in  imitation  of  the 
ancient  prophets,  and  girt  about  their  loins  with  cords  or 
withes,  professing  to  be  urged  by  the  divine  spirit.  They  filled 
all  the  public  places  with  their  prophesying,  denouncing 
Zwingle  as  the  old  dragon,  and  his  associates  as  the  dragon's 
heads  ;  preaching  righteousness  and  innocence  ;  urging  the 
community  of  goods,  and  holding  forth  the  judgments  of  God 
to  those  who  would  not  obey.  They  perambulated  the  streets 
of  the  city,  crying,  Wo — wo — wo  to  Zurich  !  and  some  of  them, 
imitating  the  prophet  Jonah,  declared  that  in  forty  days 
Zurich  would  be  destroyed  !* 

Great  excitement  and  confusion  arose  in  the  city  :  the  mul- 
titude were  alarmed,  and  the  rulers  perplexed,  and  none  could 
tell  where  the  disorder  would  end.  The  preachers  of  the 
Reformation  Avere  indefatigable ;  but,  so  far  as  the  fanatics 
were  concerned,  their  exertions  were  unavailing :  their  reason- 
ings appeared  to  them  as  the  errors  of  unenlightened  minds, 
or  the  suggestions  of  the  devil.  The  infatuated  crowd  were 
satisfied,  as  to  themselves,  that  they  were  actuated  by  divine 
inspiration,  imputed  their  wildest  freaks  to  the  spirit  of  God, 
and  every  thing  that  crossed  them  to  the  devil. 

Such  men  were  not  to  be  reasoned  with :  confinement  and 
a  rod  seemed  to  their  contemporaries  better  adapted  to  cure 
their  madness  than  argument.  They  were,  nevertheless, 
treated  by  the  government,  in  the  beginning,  with  tenderness 

*  Gieseler,  &c.,  vol.  iii.  p.  210,  note.  Fueslin,  &c.,  vol.  i.  p.  198, 
note  ?7. 


GERMAN   REFOnMED    CHURCH.  2ll 

and  forlDearance  ;  comparatively  mild  measures  only  being 
pursued  to  repress  the  disorder  and  to  reclaim  the  'wronof- 
headed  errorists.  A  public  discussion  on  the  subject  of  bap- 
tism, in  the  presence  of  the  councils,  Avas  appointed,  in  order 
that  the  truth  on  the  matter  in  question  might  be  demon- 
strated to  every  one's  satisfaction.  The  seventeenth  of 
January  was  appointed  for  that  purpose.  The  meeting  took 
place,  and  Grebel,  Mantz,  and  AVilliam  Roubli,  formerly 
pastor  of  the  parish  of  Wytikon,  defended  the  cause  of  the 
Anabaptists  against  the  reformers.  The  result  was  a  com- 
plete discomfiture  of  the  sectaries.  Their  doctrine  was  there- 
upon declared  to  be  erroneous,  and  the  leaders  were  admo- 
nished to  renounce  their  errors,  and  to  submit  to  the  authority 
of  the  word  of  God  as  already  expounded.  On  the  following 
day,  the  government  published  a  mandate,  ordering  that  all 
those  who  had  withholden  their  children  from  baptism,  by 
reason  of  the  erroneous  opinion  which  had  recently  arisen, 
should  cause  them  to  be  baptized  within  eight  days,  and  such  as 
refused  obedience  should  depart  with  their  families  and  goods 
from  the  city  and  the  canton.*  These  measures  proved 
wholly  inefiectual :  the  leaders  of  the  sect  said,  "  We  must 
obey  God  rather  than  men;"  and,  in  despite  of  the  govern- 
ment, not  only  continued  their  previous  course,  but  resolved 
to  organize  their  followers  into  a  separate  church.  Their 
determination  was  first  carried  into  efi"ect  in  the  parish  of 
Zollikon,  where  they  sought  to  realize  their  visionary  theories, 
and  established  in  their  community  of  saints  a  community  of 
goods,  and,  if  Hottinger  be  not  mistaken,  a  community  of 
■wives.f 

Such  an  act  of  schism,  so  contrary  to  the  spirit  of  the  age, 
and  characterized  as  it  was  by  contumacy  and  bold  defiance, 
was  more  than  the  age  could  tamely  bear.  But  it  gave  unity 
and  strength  to  the  sect,  while  it  nourished  their  zeal  and  fed 
their  extravagance.     As  the  evil  grew  continually,  and  the 


*  See  the  document  in  Fueslin,  &c.,  vol.  i.  p.  189-201. 
f  Hottinger,  &c.,  p.  223. 


212  HISTORY   OP   THE 

sectaries  alleged  that  they  were  sustained  by  the  authority  of 
God,  the  government  appointed  another  public  discussion,  to 
take  place  on  the  20th  of  March.  It  vras  held  accordingly ; 
and  as  the  champions  of  the  schismatic  party  only  repeated 
their  former  arguments,  which,  in  the  judgment  of  the  council, 
the  reformers  had  already  refuted,  they  were  now  told  that 
they  must  retrace  their  steps,  and  abandon  their  new  organi- 
zation, or  suflfer  the  penalty  of  disobedience.  They  refused 
to  obey  ;  in  consequence  of  which  some  of  them,  and  of  their 
disciples,  were  arrested :  foreigners  were  sent  into  banish- 
ment, citizens  who  promised  submission  were  set  at  liberty, 
but  the  obstinate  were  detained  in  prison ;  which  we  may 
suppose  to  have  been  a  prudent  precaution  against  further 
agitation  in  the  excited  state  of  the  public  mind.  But  a 
number  of  these  prisoners  broke  from  their  confinement 
and  escaped,  and,  going  abroad,  proclaimed,  wherever  they 
came,  that  God  had  sent  an  angel,  who  had  delivered  them,  as 
he  once  did  St.  Peter,  from  their  imprisonment !  Their  story, 
asserted  with  boldness,  was  believed  by  the  ignorant,  and 
drew  numbers  to  their  party  ;  and  the  evil  was  thus  rendered 
worse  by  the  measure  that  was  intended  to  be  its  remedy.* 

Brodli  and  Rciubli,  being  driven  from  Zollikon,  went  to 
tSchaffhausen,  and  thence  to  Waldshut,  where  they  rebaptized 
the  converts.  Hubmeyer,  hitherto  hesitating,  and  lingering 
in  the  ancient  customs,  was  borne  away  by  the  current  of  their 
enthusiasm,  and  received  baptism  at  the  hand  of  Rbubli,  and 
with  him  above  a  hundred  other  persons ;  and  so  rapid  was 
now  the  progress  of  the  sect,  that,  at  the  Easter  festival, 
Hubmeyer  administered  baptism  to  about  three  hundred  con- 
verts.f 

Many  of  those  who  were  set  at  liberty  upon  a  promise  of 
submission  resumed  their  former  course  on  returning  to  their 
brethren.  The  disturbance  increased,  and,  in  addition  to  the 
former  mischief,  the  ringleaders  were  now  charged  with  enter- 

*  Hottinger,  &c,,  p.  264.     Fueslin,  &c.,  vol.  i.  p.  249,  note  52. 
■j-  Fueslin,  &c.,  vol.  iii.  p.  241. 


GERMAN   REFORMED    CHURCH.  213 

tami-n<T'  designs  against  the  government  and  the  existing  order 
of  thinf^s.  They  tampered,  it  was  said,  with  the  discontented 
peasantry,  who  were  encouraged  to  hope  for  a  deliverance 
from  their  burdens,  and  a  community  of  goods ;  they  talked 
of  striking  oif  the  heads  of  priests,  and  of  resisting  the  civil 
authorities  by  force  of  arms  ;  they  said  that  Christians  had  no 
need  of  earthly  rulers  and  courts  of  justice,  and  that  no  Chris- 
tian could  be  a  member  of  the  secular  government.  These 
seditious  principles,  so  well  adapted  to  nourish  insubordination, 
spread  a  general  ferment  among  the  peasantry,  in  some  in- 
stances produced  actual  risings,  and  in  not  a  few  caused 
assemblies  of  the  people,  and  applications  to  the  councils  for 
a  release  from  their  burdens.  The  dissatisfaction  was  greatest 
with  regard  to  the  payment  of  tythes,  which  was  represented 
as  an  arbitrary  imposition,  unauthorized  by  the  Scripture,  and 
unsupported  by  any  principle  of  equity.  This  question  was, 
therefore,  argued  by  order  of  the  council,  in  their  presence, 
by  the  most  learned  among  the  preachers  and  the  citizens, 
and  the  result  of  the  argument  was,  that  the  tything  system 
ought  not  to  be  abolished.  The  ground  taken  by  Zwingle, 
and  approved  by  the  council,  was  not  the  authority  of  the 
Levitical  law,  which,  he  maintained,  was  a  part  of  the  Mosaic 
dispensation,  and  expired  with  it  by  its  own  limitation,  but 
the  fact  that  the  lands  came  into  the  possession  of  the  present 
holders  subject  to  the  payment  of  tythes,  and  this  condition, 
therefore,  formed  a  part  of  the  contract,  which  could  not  be 
chancred  or  annulled  without  the  consent  of  the  receivers :  or 
they  were  conveyed  to  trustees,  by  benevolent  donors,  for  the 
benefit  of  religion  and  education,  or  the  relief  of  the  poor,  and 
therefore  could  not  be  turned  from  that  destination,  nor  freed 
from  the  tax  which  it  imposed  upon  them  :  and,  moreover,  if 
the  tything  system  were  abolished,  there  would  be  a  necessity 
of  imposing  the  same  burdens  in  another  form  for  the  same 
objects.  On  these  grounds  the  council  dismissed  the  petitions, 
and  issued  their  mandate  commanding  the  payment  of  tythes, 
and  warning  the  disaflfccted  of  the  consequences  of  dis- 
obedience. 


214  HISTORY   OF   THE 

The  Anabaptists,  nevertheless,  continued  their  offensive 
proceedings,  fomenting  discontent,  and  treating  the  orders  of 
government  with  contemptuous  neglect.  Numbers  of  them 
were,  therefore,  imprisoned  ;  and  many  of  these,  having  been 
formerly  liberated  on  a  promise  of  amendment,  were  now 
treated  with  greater  severity.  These  arrests  furnished  new 
matter  of  complaint  and  of  mutual  encouragement  to  the  sect, 
who  looked  upon  this  treatment  as  a  persecution  for  righteous- 
ness' sake,  that  entitled  them  to  the  kingdom  of  heaven.  They 
raised  the  outcry  that  the  government  was  bent  upon  exe- 
cuting their  pleasure  by  force  and  violence,  and  condemned  the 
innocent  unheard ;  they  clamored  for  a  hearing,  and  demanded 
that  Zwingle  should  not  be  suffered  to  browbeat  their  speakers, 
as  they  alleged  he  had  done.*  These  complaints  awakened 
sympathy  in  their  behalf,  and  gave  new  popularity  to  their 
cause.  The  authorities  were,  therefore,  necessitated  to  yield, 
notwithstanding  their  reluctance,  to  what  they  esteemed  an 
unreasonable  demand  after  the  previous  conferences,  and  to 
grant  a  third  disputation,  which  they  appointed  on  the  6th 
of  November,  1525.  To  remove  every  ground  of  complaint, 
and  to  place  the  malcontents  fully  in  the  wrong  before  the 
community,  they  extended  the  invitation  to  all  Anabaptists, 
both  of  their  own  and  of  other  territories,  and  gave  liberty  to 
every  one  to  plead  his  cause  as  he  thought  best,  without  inter- 
ruption ;  and,  as  the  district  of  G-rilningen  was  particularly 
favorable  to  the  sect,  they  caused  a  deputation  of  twelve  men 
to  be  sent  from  that  district  at  the  public  expense,  that  they 
might  witness  all  the  transactions  of  the  meeting,  and  attest 
them  to  their  fellow-citizens  at  home.  The  assembly  was  very 
large,  and  the  discussions  were  continued  throughout  three 
days.  Its  result  was  like  that  of  the  two  preceding  confer- 
ences. The  leaders  of  the  sect  were  adjudged  to  have  failed 
in  sustaining  their  cause  on  Scriptural  grounds ;  Grebel, 
Mantz,  Blaurock  and  others  were  admonished  to  desist  from 
propagating  doctrines  which  they  were  unable  to  prove  ;  and 

*  Fuefelin,  &c.,  vol.  i.  p.  279-286,  and  notes. 


GERMAN  REFORMED  CHURCH.  215 

continuing  obstinate,  thej  were  at  first  imprisoned,  but  Avere 
soon  released,  in  tlie  hope  of  their  amendment,  and  dismissed 
with  an  assurance  of  punishment  if  they  continued  their  dis- 
orderly proceedings.*      The  result   of   the   conference  was 
announced  in  a  public  edict ;   the  authors  of  anabaptism  were 
severely  reprobated,    rebaptism  was   forbidden,   punishment 
threatened  to  the  disobedient,  and  parents  were  commanded 
to  have  their  children  baptized. f     The  government,  at  the 
same  time,  addressed  a  written  communication  to  the  people 
of  Gruningcn,  in  which,  after  commenting  upon  the  history  of 
the  Anabaptists,  and  their  recent  discomfiture  in  the  last  dis- 
putation, and  declaring  their  determination  to  root  out  so 
pernicious  a  sect,  they  demanded  a  speedy  answer  to  the 
question  Avhether  they  Avould  take  part  with  the  government 
or  with  the  Anabaptists.     The  inhabitants  of  the  district  were 
thereupon  convened,  and,  after  hearing  the  statement  of  the 
twelve  who  had  witnessed  the  transactions  of  the  late  con- 
ference, determined  to  take  part  with  their  legitimate  sove- 
reigns against  the  sectaries.^     But  the  Anabaptists,  who  were 
numerous  in  the  district,  had  influence  enough  afterwards  to 
withdraw  them  again  from  their  allegiance.  §     As  these  mea- 
sures also  proved  inefiectual,  and  the  fanatical  leaders  persisted 
in  their  course,  disregarding  every  mandate,  and  acting  in 
defiance  of  the  constituted  authorities,  the  government  pro- 
ceeded ultimately  to  the  last  resort,  and,  in  March,  1526, 
published  an  edict,  which  made  the  act  of  rebaptizing  a  capital 
ofi'ence,  and  subjected  the  guilty  to  the  punishment  of  death 
by  drowning.     In  November,  of  the  same  year,  another  edict 
followed,  which  was  based  upon  information  which  the  govern- 
ment had  received,  "  that  some,  in  the  lordship  of  Cfrlimngen 
and  elsewhere,  were  holding  large  conventions,  and  in  the 
same  were  transacting,  plotting,  and  contriving  measures  that 
were  hostile  to  government,  and  to  the  common  cause  of  Chris- 

*  Fueslin,  &c.,  vol.  i.  p.  284,  note  58.     Hettinger,  &c.,  p.  271, 
f  Hettinger,  &c.,  p.  271.  J  IbiJ. 

g  Fueslin,  &c.,  vol.  1.  p.  285,  note  58. 


216  HISTORY   OF   THE 

tianity;"  and  it  extended  the  penalty  of  the  preceding  act 
"  to  all  who  thus  combined,  and  by  their  preaching  in  con- 
venticles, and  their  wrong  proceedings,  held  such  assemblies."* 

The  first  who  suffered  under  these  edicts  was  Felix  Mantz, 
who  was  drowned  at  Zurich,  January  5th,  1527.  He  bore  his 
fate  with  the  utmost  fortitude.  On  his  way  to  the  place  of  exe- 
cution, he  thanked  God  that  he  was  about  to  suffer  death  for 
his  truth,  and  remarked  that  Christ  had  predicted  that  his 
discijDles  would  suffer  for  his  name's  sake  and  for  the  truth. 
He  continued  to  speak  in  the  same  strain,  and  when  the 
preacher  Avho  accompanied  him  attempted  to  converse  with 
him,  his  mother  and  his  brother  exhorted  him  to  constancy 
and  firmness.  As  he  fell  bound  into  the  water,  he  exclaimed, 
"  Father,  into  thy  hands  I  commend  my  spirit."  His  brother 
wept,  but  his  aged  mother  shed  no  tear.f 

These  harsh  measures  so  far  repressed  the  activity  of  the 
sect,  that  they  withdrew  from  public  observation,  and  held 
their  meetings  and  propagated  their  doctines  in  secret.  But 
they  were  not  suppressed,  and  the  heroic  endurance  of  death 
by  many  of  their  brethren  shed  a  lustre  upon  their  cause,  and 
furnished  materials  for  a  history  of  martyrs,  often  embellished 
with  tales  of  miraculous  attestations  from  heaven,  that  did 
them  important  service,  and  compensated  in  a  good  measure 
for  the  severities  which  they  suffered. 

From  Zurich  and  Waldshut  this  dangerous  sect  quickly 
overspread  the  neighboring  countries  of  Switze)-land  a,nd 
(xermany,  wherever  they  were  not  crushed  at  once  by  com- 
mitting them  to  the  sword  or  the  flames.  They  were  every- 
where treated  by  the  civil  power  with  more  or  less  severity, 
especially  in  popish  countries,  where  great  numbers  were  put 
to  death,  and  many  of  them  died  at  the  stake,  among  whom 
were  Blaurock  and  Hubmeyer.  The  cities  of  Basel,  Bern, 
St.  Grail,  and  Ooire  issued  edicts  similar  to  those  of  Zurich. 
The  imperial  chamber  of  Spire,  in  the  German  empire,  pro- 

*  Fneslin,  &c.,  vol.  i.  p.  270,  note  57. 

t  Ibid.  p.  274,  note  57.     Hottingep,  p.  385. 


GERMAN    REFORMED    CIIURCn.  217 

mulgatecl  a  decree  by  which  they  ordained,  "  That  all  and 
every  rebaptizer  and  rebaptized  person,  whether  male  or 
female,  of  adult  age,  should  be  put  to  death  by  fire  and  sword, 
or  by  other  means,  according  to  the  circumstances  of  the 
person,  without  a  previous  inquisition  of  the  spiritual  courts ; 
and  those  peace-breakers,  ringleaders,  vagrants,  and  seditious 
instigators  of  the  vice  of  rebaptism,  if  they  persist  therein,  or 
relapse  into  it,  should  by  no  means  find  favor,  but  should  be 
proceeded  against  with  rigor  according  to  the  statute.  Such, 
■however,  as  confessed  their  error  and  recalled  it,  and  were 
willing  to  submit  to  penance  for  it,  and  supplicated  for  mercy, 
might  be  pardoned,  in  consideration  of  their  condition,  busi- 
ness, youth,  and  all  the  circumstances.  Every  one,  also,  should 
have  his  children  baptized  agreeably  to  Christian  order,  cus- 
tom, and  usage.  But  whoever  should  contemptuously  omit  to 
do  so,  esteeming  infant-baptism  a  nullity,  shall  be  considered 
an  Anabaptist,  and  subjected  to  the  above  ordinance."*  This 
example  was  followed  by  the  emperor  Charles  V.  and  the 
several  princes  of  the  empire,  who  expelled  the  miserable  sect 
from  their  dominions,  not  by  argument,  but  by  the  sword. 
Their  blood  was  freely  shed  :  and  when  they  were  not  put  to 
death,  they  were  otherwise  punished  with  fines,  imprisonment, 
stripes,  or  banishment. f 

It  may  be  truly  said  that  this  was  a  cruel  persecution,  and 
particularly  ill  became  Protestants  who  contended  so  earnestly 
for  the  rights  of  conscience.  But  it  was  not  without  its 
apology,  both  in  the  spirit  of  the  age  and  in  the  principles 
and  the  conduct  of  the  sufi"erers.  It  was  not  easy  for  men 
just  emerging  from  the  darkness  of  popery  to  open  their  eyes 
at  once  upon  the  light  in  the  fulness  of  its  blaze,  and  to  see 
the  falsity  and  the  wickedness  of  the  principle  so  long  held 
and  granted,  Tliat  errors  in  religion^  obstinately/  j^^^sisted  in, 
were  crimes  which  Christian  rulers  ought  to  punish.  The 
Anabaptists  themselves  also  furnished  suflScient  cause  to 
identify  them  with  Munzcr  and  the  revolted  peasantry,  whose 


*  Fueslin,  &c.,  vol.  i.  p.  272,  note  57.  f  It)^*^-  P-  273. 

T  28 


218  HISTORY   OF   THE 

enormities  had  kindled  a  feeling  of  extreme  bitterness  in  tlie 
minds  of  the  secular  rulers.  Their  tenet,  That  among  Chris- 
tians there  should  he  no  secular  government,  and  that  no 
Christian  could  hold  such  an  office,  -wtis  levelled  against  all 
existing  governments :  it  implied  that  every  secular  ruler  was 
an  infidel,  and,  as  such,  unworthy  to  preside  over  a  Christian 
people  ;  and  the  dissemination  of  such  a  doctrine  among  the 
multitude  could  not  fail  to  be  of  injurious  effect.  The  odium 
which  this  tenet  everywhere  brought  upon  them,  and  the  ven- 
geance which  it  armed  against  them,  at  length  opened  their 
eyes,  and  taught  them  to  purge  it  from  their  creed.  To  the 
church  they  were  not  less  offensive  by  their  fanatical  excesses, 
and  their  scurrilous  denunciation  of  institutions  which  all  the 
world  revered  as  holy  and  divine.  They  reviled,  in  the  most 
indecent  terms,  the  existing  churches  and  their  ministry,  and 
denounced  infant-baptism  as  an  invention  of  the  devil,  and  a 
useless  ceremony,  comparing  it  with  the  washing  of  a  dog  or 
other  beast.  It  was  not  in  the  spirit  of  the  times  to  tolerate 
such  profane  railing ;  and  it  is  not  to  be  wondered  at,  if  those 
whom  they  thus  angered  sometimes  treated  them  worse  than 
they  deserved. 

To  the  Reformed  church,  the  rise  of  this  sect  was  particu- 
larly fraught  with  danger.  The  light  of  truth  had  but  re- 
cently been  brought  again  from  its  long  concealment,  and  was 
still  in  doubtful  conflict  with  darkness.  Some  of  the  popish 
abuses  had  been  abolished,  and  the  way  was  cautiously  pre- 
paring for  the  removal  of  the  rest.  The  Christian  Avorld  was 
anxiously  expecting  the  result.  Enemies  without  assailed  the 
nascent  Reformation,  at  one  time  with  alluring  promises,  and 
at  another  with  threats ;  whilst  enemies  within  were  looking  out 
for  coming  events,  eager  to  lay  hold  of  any  thing  wherewith 
to  crush  it  in  its  birth.  The  whole  ground  upon  which  the 
reformers  stood  was  the  principle.  That  the  Bible  is  the  suffi- 
cient and  only  rule  of  faith  and  practice,  and  for  the  right 
understanding  of  it  we  need  no  other  than  its  own  light.  In 
the  midst  of  the  conflict,  the  Anabaptists  arose  like  a  whirl- 
wind; they  pronounced  the  doctrine  of  the  reformers  false 


GERMAN    REFORMED    CHURCH.  219 

and  their  church  an  abomination,  and  professed  to  teach  the 
true  gospel  and  to  form  the  only  true  church.  The  Papists 
took  advantage  of  this  schism  to  invalidate  the  fundamental 
principle  of  "the  Reformation,  to  prove  the  inutility  of  the 
Bible  as  the  rule  of  faith,  and  to  show  the  necessity  of  a 
supreme  judge  of  controversies.  The  Reformed  were  thus 
placed  between  two  hostile  forces  on  opposite  sides,  and 
seemed  devoted  to  perdition  amid  the  assaults  of  both ;  and 
to  a  power  and  a  wisdom  far  above  her  own  is  it  owing  that 
the  Reformed  church  came  unhurt  out  of  these  dangers. 

The  necessity  was  now  imposed  upon  the  reformers  to  show 
that,  though  the  Bible  was  sufficiently  clear,  their  adversaries 
gave  a  false  representation  of  its  meaning,  and  that  the  doc- 
trine which  it  teaches  was  that  which  they  themselves  had 
taught.  Hence  were  the  repeated  public  discussions  of  which 
the  Bible  was  made  the  basis,  and  hence  the  writings  of  the 
reformers  on  this  subject. 

The  first  of  Zwingle's  works  in  this  controversy  was  pub- 
lished May  27,  1525,  under  the  title  "  Of  Baptism,  Rebap- 
tism,  and  Infant-baptism."  It  was  dedicated  to  the  council 
and  citizens  of  St.  Gall,  where  the  sect  were  become  very  nu- 
merous. His  second  work,  "On  the  Gospel  Ministry,"  with 
an  introductory  address  to  his  countrymen  of  the  county  of 
Toklcenhurg,  appeared  on  the  30th  of  June.  In  reply  to 
Hubmeyer,  who  had  put  forth  a  slanderous  attack  upon  his 
character,  he  published,  in  November  of  the  same  year,  his 
vindication,  entitled  "On  Doctor  Balthazar's  Tract  on  Bap- 
tism :  a  true  and  solid  Answer,"  which  contained  the  argu- 
ment he  employed  at  the  same  time  in  the  third  public  dispu- 
tation. Another  work,  "  Against  the  Craft  and  Artifices  of 
the  Anabaptists,"  appeared  in  1527. 

Anabaptists  have  charged  Zwingle  with  instigating  the 
government  to  the  harsh  measures  that  were  adopted  against 
them.  Hubmeyer  was  the  first,  or  among  the  first,  who  urged 
this  serious  charge.  In  the  dedication  pvefixed  to  his  pub- 
lished account  of  his  conference  at  Nicolshurg,  in  1526,  which 
may  serve  as  a  specimen  of  his  calumnies,  he  says :  "  They 


220  HISTORY   OP   THE 

wished  to  convert  me  to  another  faith  by  the  executioner, 
agreeably  to  Zwingle's  sentence,  pronounced  publicly  in  the 
pulpit  upon  me  and  many  other  pious  persons — men,  women, 
and  maidens;  that  we,  as  Anabaptists,  ought' to  have  our 
heads  cut  off,  conformably  to  the  imperial  laws.  This  is  his 
gospel,  word  of  consolation,  and  work  of  mercy,  with  which 
he  comforted  and  visited  the  Christians  in  prison.     Yea,  he 

preached  a  very  singular  sermon and,  finally,  too, 

brought  it  to  this,  that  above  twenty  persons,  men,  women, 
pregnant  wives,  and  maidens,  were  miserably  cast  into  gloomy 
towers,  and  doomed  no  more  to  see  the  light  of  the  sun  or 
moon,  to  end  their  days  on  bread  and  water,  and  thus  to  re- 
main together  in  the  dark  towers,  the  living  and  the  dead,  to 
die,  stink,  and  putrefy,  till  none  survived.  Oh  God,  what  an 
unheard-of,  grievous,  and  rigid  sentence  upon  pious  Christian 
people,  against  whom  no  ill  could  be  truly  said,  save  only  that, 
in  obedience  to  the  strict  command  of  Christ,  they  had  received 
water-baptism."* 

That  this  is  a  grossly  exaggerated  and  false  account  of  the 
treatment  of  the  Anabaptist  prisoners  in  Zurich,  is  satisfac- 
torily shown  by  Fueslin  in  his  "Beitrage."t  But  our  purpose 
here  is  only  to  vindicate  the  innocence  of  Zwingle  of  a  charge 
so  inconsistent  with  his  avowed  principles,  and  so  discreditable 
to  his  character.  "There  is  not  a  shadow  of  truth,"  says 
Fueslin,  in  the  same  place,  "  in  the  assertion  that  Zwingle  in- 
cited the  government  to  such  harsh  proceedings.  He  manifests 
no  little  meekness  and  patience  toward  them  in  his  first  writ- 
ings. In  the  dedication  of  his  book  '  On  Baptism,'  &c.,  he 
says :  '  I  will  utter  no  hard  and  bitter  speeches  against  them, 
although  I  know  that  they  vilify  and  calumniate  me  above 
measure.  They  assert  that  I  am  the  cause  of  their  banish- 
ment from  the  city  and  the  country  by  the  council,  and  of 
their  being  in  exile ;  but  I  can  appeal  to  themselves,  that,  in 
their  presence,  I  entreated  the  council  not  to  adopt  rigorous 
measures  against  them.     At  the  same  time,  I  advised  several 

*  Fueslin,  vol.  i.  p.  206,  f  ^'^^-  P-  207,  &o. 


GERMAN   REFORMED   CHURCH.  221 

counsellors,  in  private,  that  a  better  course  would  be  to  tolerate 
them  in  the  territory  of  Zurich,  than  to  send  them  elsewhere ; 
inasmuch  as  it  was  well  known  here  to  every  one,  that  they 
have  been  vanquished  in  argument  on  all  occasions,  and  an 
enemy  who  is  knoAvn  to  be  conquered  excites  no  fear.  This 
is  my  offence  ;  this  is  the  great  injury  they  have  received 
from  me.  I  have  always  been  grieved  for  their  ill  and  hard- 
ship. I  have  always  kindly  entreated  them  to  desist  from 
their  obstinacy.  If  they  would  acknowledge  the  truth,  they 
would  not  deny  this.  From  this  every  pious  Christian  may 
judge  who  has  acted  more  honestly  and  Christian-like.'  In 
another  writing,"  continues  the  same  author,  "addressed  to 
Conrad  Som,  preacher  and  reformer  in  Ulm,  he  states,  that, 
as  often  as  he  appeared  with  the  Anabaptists  before  the  coun- 
cil, he  had  entreated  for  them,  and  had  thereby  obtained  that 
the  council  proceeded  so  slowly  against  them.  On  another 
occasion,  he  exercised  the  same  kindness  toward  them.  When 
one  of  the  exiled  ringleaders  had  published  a  scurrilous  libel 
on  the  government  of  ZuricJi,  he  took  the  utmost  pains  to 
suppress  the  defamatory  production,  lest  it  should  come  to  the 
knowledge  of  the  council,  and  that  body  should  be  provoked 
to  resort  to  more  rigorous  measures.  When,  some  time  after- 
ward, Faber  reproached  him,  in  one  of  his  writings,  with 
having  caused  the  poor  Anabaptists,  as  he  called  them,  to  be 
imprisoned  and  badly  used,  he  complained  with  much  feeling 
of  the  injustice  of  the  accusation,  and  asked,  '  What,  I  pray, 
do  the  calumniators  think  of  the  council  of  Zurich  ?  Do  they 
consider  them  so  witless,  that  they  would,  on  all  occasions, 
ask  counsel  of  me  ?  Am  I  the  council's  master,  that  I  can 
prescribe  to  them  Avhat  they  shall  do  ?'  Finally,"  says  Fueslin 
still,  "what  reason  had  Hubmeyer  to  complain  of  him?  He 
had  generously  saved  him  from  those  who  had  sought  his  life, 
and  persuaded  the  council  to  let  him  go  in  peace,  when  they 
might  justly  have  punished  him  for  his  wickedness,  and  even 
obtained  for  him  a  considerable  sum  of  money  to  bear  his 
travelling  expenses.  '  The  council,'  says  Zwingle,  in  a  letter 
to  Gynoriius,  'did  not  force  him  to  this  recantation,  if  he 


222  HISTORY  OP  THE 

were  willing  to  leave  the  city ;  for  tliey  did  nothing  more  to 
those  who  would  not  repudiate  Anabaptism,  than  to  banish 
them.  In  the  mean  time,  the  imperial  ambassadors  arrived 
and  demanded  him,  that  he  might  be  brought  to  condign  pun- 
ishment. This  was  refused,  in  pursuance  of  a  law  which  pro- 
vides that  a  citizen  should  be  tried  only  for  the  crime  for 
which  he  was  at  first  arrested.  In  this  manner,  the  council 
sinned  by  him,  viewing  him  as  a  citizen,  and  evading  the  em- 
peror's demand He  wrote  a  recantation,  accordingly, 

with  his  own  hand,  which  was  not  copied  from  any  form  pre- 
scribed by  the  council,  or  by  any  other  person  ;  and  when  he 
had  read  it  in  the  church  of  Notre  Dame,  he  retracted  it  after 
I  had  preached,  and,  thinking  he  now  had  an  occasion  to 
speak,  said  many  things  against  infant-baptism  and  for  re- 
baptism Upon  this,  he  was  reconducted  to  prison,  and 

kept  more  than  a  month  in  confinement.  At  length  he  wished 
to  exculpate  himself,  saying,  he  had  no  recollection  of  doing 
any  thing  amiss ;  if  he  had  spoken  otherwise  than  he  had 
promised,  it  was  the  evil  spirit  that  had  sported  with  him.  He 
then  wrote  another  recantation.  I  went  everywhere  to  my 
friends,  exhorting  them  to  exercise  mercy  toward  him,  and  to 
admit  him  to  a  hearing  by  the  council.  This  was  done.  When 
he  now  offered  his  recantation,  of  his  own  accord,  they  required 
that  he  should  write  it  in  German,  and  presently  afterward 
leave  the  country.  I  now  went  immediately  to  my  colleagues, 
Engelhard,  Leo,  and  Grossman,  and  besought  them  to  inter- 
cede for  him,  because,  if  he  were  compelled  to  depart  imme- 
diately after  his  recantation,  he  would  be  exposed  to  great 
danger  both  from  the  confederates  and  from  the  emperor. 
The  council  yielded,  and,  after  his  recantation,  which  he 
uttered  with  apparent  sincerity,  though  it  was  any  thing  else 
rather,  permitted  him  to  remain  concealed  in  Zurich,  until  he 
might  depart  in  safety.  Sometime  afterward,  a  citizen,  who 
is  sincerely  attached  to  the  gospel,  conveyed  him  away  so 
privately,  that  even  the  citizens  knew  nothing  of  it.'  "* 

*  Fueslin,  vol.  i.  p.  212,  note  40. 


GERMAN  REFORMED  CHURCH.  223 

Fucslin  observes,  in  his  note  :  "  It  does  not  appear  from  the 
records  that  no  ill  could  be  said  of  the  sect,  save  only  that 
they  were  rebaptized.  Rebaptism  would  not  have  amounted 
to  much,  if  it  had  not  served  to  add  strength  to  other  errors. 
Their  separation  from  the  church,  their  disobedience  and 
hostility  to  government,  their  suspicious  intercourse  with  the 
discontented  subjects,  who  wished  to  rid  themselves  of  tythes, 
rents,  and  other  obligations,  and  were  encouraged  in  this  by 
their  teaching,  their  doctrine  of  matrimony,  which  obliged  a 
believer,  that  is,  an  Anabaptist,  to  separate  from  his  or  her 
consort  who  was  not  of  the  same  faith :  these  were  the  causes 
that  chiefly  armed  the  government  against  them."*  It  must 
be  confessed,  however,  that  the  law  made  the  fact  of  being 
rebaptized,  or  of  conferring  the  rite  on  another  person,  the 
evidence  of  a  participation  in  the  crimes  that  were  charged 
upon  the  sect  ;t  and  it  cannot  be  denied,  as  Fueslin  himself 
observes,  that  their  treatment  proceeded  ultimately  pretty 
much  upon  popish  principles  of  religious  coercion.^  Religious 
intolerance  was  the  great  vice  of  the  age ;  a  vice  which  the 
church  of  Rome  had  nursed  and  cherished  into  maturity; 
which  she  had  raised  by  her  constant  practice,  and  by  her 
solemn  decrees,  to  the  honors  of  the  holiest  virtue  :  and  it  is 
not  to  be  greatly  wondered  at,  if  those  who  had  grown  up 
within  her  pale  continued  to  be  fettered  by  it  long  after  they 
had  left  her  communion.  Zwingle,  nevertheless,  had  not  so 
learned  Christ.  Both  he  and  Luther  were,  in  this  respect, 
far  in  advance  of  the  age  in  which  they  lived. 

The  Anabaptists  did  not  all  adopt  all  the  errors  of  their 
brethren,  and  it  would  be  unjust  to  say  that  there  were  not 
among  them  many  examples  of  sincere  piety,  though  blended 
more  or  less  with  fanaticism.  Neither  did  all  their  brethren, 
who  fell  into  gross  excesses,  adopt  the  same  errors  and  prac- 
tice the  same  fooleries.  Mantz  taught,  it  is  said,  that  baptism 
extinguished  all  sinful  propensities,  and  the  baptized  were, 


*  Fueslin,  vol.  i.  p.  211.  f  Ibid.  p.  210,  note  k. 

I  Ibid.  p.  196,  note  37. 


224  HISTORY   OF   THE 

therefore,  without  sin.  Others  held  that  those  who  transgress 
after  baptism  commit  the  sin  against  the  Holy  Ghost.  Others, 
again,  who  indulged  freely  in  sinful  pleasures,  thought  that, 
as  they  Averc  not  in  the  flesh,  but  in  the  spirit,  such  things 
could  not  affect  them.  Lewis  Hezer  and  his  followers  re- 
jected the  atonement  and  the  divinity  of  Christ.  John  Denk 
and  his  party  taught  the  ultimate  salvation  of  the  damned. 
Some  rejected  the  Old  Testament  as  of  no  use  to  Christians. 
Some  repudiated  the  whole  of  the  written  word  as  a  dead 
letter  that  killeth,  professing  to  be  taught  by  the  spirit,  the 
internal  word.  In  their  meetings  for  worship,  some  of  them 
fell  suddenly  upon  the  floor,  or  rubbed  their  backs  against  the 
wall,  bent  their  hands  and  fingers  as  in  convulsions,  distorted 
their  faces,  and  wrought  themselves  into  profuse  sweats. 
This  they  called  "  dying  with  Christ."  When  they  recovered 
themselves,  they  spoke  of  sublime,  heavenly  things  ;  and  this 
they  called  "testifying."  Some,  who,  it  was  alleged,  could 
neither  read  nor  write,  spoke  occasionally  from  the  Holy 
Scripture,  and  what  they  said  was  taken  down  in  writing  by 
others,  and  esteemed  a  word  of  God.*  A  tragic  event,  which 
occurred  on  the  Miilegg,  in  the  precincts  of  St.  Grail,  furnished 
a  painful  illustration  of  the  nature  of  the  spirit  that  actuated 
these  enthusiasts,  and  of  the  pernicious  tendency  of  a  blind 
confidence  in  imagined  supernatural  illuminations,  irrespective 
of  reason  and  the  written  word  of  God.  N.  Shugger,  a  vene- 
rable sire  of  eighty  years,  and  his  five  sons,  had  embraced  the 
doctrine  of  the  Anabaptists.  On  a  Shrove-Tuesday,  being 
the  seventh  of  February,  1526,  a  large  number  of  the  brethren 
were  assembled  at  his  house  to  celebrate  the  festival,  and  were 
entertained  by  a  feast  on  a  fatted  calf  by  the  aged  father. 
The  time  was  spent  in  various  fanatical  exercises,  and  two  of 
the  sons,  Leonard  and  Thomas,  fancying  themselves  under 
powerful  divine  influences,  raved  like  madmen.  In  the  midst 
of  their  frenzy,  the  former  cried  out  to  his  brother  :  "  Thomas, 
it  is  the  will  of  the  heavenly  Father  that  you  strike  off  my 


*  Hottinger,  &c.,  p.  268,  &c. 


GERMAN   REFORMED   CHURCH.  225 

bead!"  After  some  frantic  fooleries,  Thomas  exclaimed: 
"  Father,  thy  will  be  done  !"  He  directed  his  brother  to  kneel, 
and,  in  the  presence  of  the  whole  assembly,  took  a  sword  and 
struck  oif  his  head  as  he  knelt  before  them.  After  thanking 
God  that  he  had  overcome,  he  ran  to  the  house  of  Vadianus, 
the  burgomaster,  in  St.  Grail,  and  said  to  him  :  "  He  will  do  it 
no  more.  I  have  given  it  to  him."  The  burgomaster,  thinking 
him  deranged,  commanded  him  to  be  led  into  the  house,  but 
learning  very  soon  the  facts  of  the  dreadful  tragedy,  sent  him 
to  prison.  In  his  confinement,  the  miserable  man  continued 
to  ascribe  the  horrid  deed  to  the  agency  of  God,  acknowledg- 
ing that  he  had  done  it,  but  maintaining  that  God  had  wrought 
it  by  him.  Three  successive  trials  on  the  rack  could  elicit 
nothing  else  from  him,  and  he  died  under  the  hand  of  the 
executioner,  still  affirming  the  same  thing.* 

H.  Bullinger,  in  his  history  of  the  Anabaptists,  gives  the 
following  account  of  their  doctrine  : 

"  They  esteem  themselves  the  only  true  and  acceptable 
church  and  congregation  of  Christ,  and  teach  that  those  who 
are  received  into  their  society  by  baptism  must  have  no  com- 
munion whatever  either  with  the  evangelical  or  with  any  other 
churches ;  for  our  churches  are  not  truer  churches  of  Christ 
than  the  Papists'  or  others.  They  urge  in  proof  of  this,  that 
in  their  churches  there  is  evident  reformation  of  life,  whereas, 
in  the  so-called  evangelical  churches  nobody  reforms ;  all  are 
impenitent,  captivated  in  sins  and  vices,  for  which  reason  it 
is  unbecoming  to  have  fellowship  with  them. 

"  There  is  also  a  defect  in  the  ministers,  as  well  as  in  the 
people,  both  as  to  their  persons  and  as  to  their  ministry.  As 
to  their  persons,  because  they  are  not  rightly  called ;  because 
they  possess  not  the  qualifications  described  by  St.  Paul,  in 
1  Tim.  iii. ;  because  they  do  not  themselves  practise  what 
they  teach  others ;  and  because  they  accept  salaries  and  bene- 
fices.        *         *         *         * 

"  There  is,  farther,  a  great  defect  in  their  ministry,  both 


*  Hottinger,  &c.,  p.  289. 
29 


226  HISTORY   OF   THE 

as  to  their  teaching  and  as  to  their  administration  of  sacra- 
ments. As  to  their  teaching,  because  all  are  bound  to  the 
preaching  of  one  man,  although  Paul  ordained  that,  if  a  reve- 
lation come  to  one  ^Yho  sitteth,  the  first  shall  be  silent  that 
the  other  may  speak. 

"  The  preachers  do  not  abide  by  the  word  alone,  but  ex- 
pound the  Scripture,  although  the  Scripture  is  not  to  be  inter- 
preted according  to  every  one's  exposition. 

"  The  sermons  of  the  preachers  are  too  insignificant,  for 
they  teach  that  Christ  has  made  satisfaction  for  sin,  and  that 
man  is  justified  by  faith,  and  not  by  works ;  although,  in  this 
wicked  world,  nothing  should  be  more  insisted  on  than  good 
works. 

"  So,  also,  the  preachers  have  taught  that  it  is  impossible 
that  a  man  should  keep  the  law,  although  the  whole  Scripture 
commands  the  keeping  of  the  law. 

"  The  preachers  do  not  teach  aright  concerning  love,  agree- 
ably to  which  all  things  should  be  held  in  common ;  for  they 
pretend  that  a  Christian  may  possess  property  and  be  rich, 
whereas  love  would  rather  have  all  things  common  among  the 
brethren. 

"  The  preachers  mingle  together  the  Old  Testament  and 
the  New,  although  the  Old  Testament  is  abrogated  and  of  no 
validity  with  Christians;  and  those  of  the  Old  Testament, 
moreover,  have  no  kindred  with  those  of  the  New. 

"  What  the  preachers  say  of  souls,  that  they  pass  directly 
to  heaven  after  the  death  of  the  body,  is  not  certain  ;  for  they 
sleep  until  the  day  of  judgment. 

"  The  preachers  grant  too  much  to  government,  of  which 
Christians  have  no  need,  inasmuch  as  they  are  wholly  passive. 
A  Christian  cannot  be  a  secular  magistrate. 

"  Governments  neither  shall  nor  may  take  cognisance  of 
religion  and  matters  of  faith. 

"  Christians  do  not  resist  violence  ;  therefore  they  have  no 
need  of  courts :  neither  does  a  Christian  use  a  court. 

"  Christians  put  no  man  to  death.  They  do  not  punish 
■with  the  prison  and  the  sword,  but  with  the  ban  only. 


GERMAN   REFORMED    CHURCH.  227 

"Nobody  must  be  compelled  to  believe  by  any  force  or 
constraint :  neither  must  any  one  be  put  to  death  on  account 
of  his  belief. 

"  Christians  make  no  resistance ;  therefore  they  wage  no 
war,  and,  in  this,  do  not  obey  government. 

"  The  speech  of  Christians  is  yea,  yea,  nay,  nay.  Thoy 
swear  not  at  all ;  wherefore,  also,  they  swear  no  oath.  Swear- 
ing an  oath  would  be  sin  and  wrong. 

"  The  ministry  of  the  preachers  is  further  defective  in  the 
administration  of  the  sacraments,  because  they  baptize  infants  ; 
for  infant  baptism  is  from  the  pope  and  out  of  the  devil. 

"  Rebaptism,  on  the  contrary,  is  the  true  Christian  baptism, 
being  given  unto  repentance  to  those  who  make  a  profession, 
and  are  instructed,  and  have  understanding. 

"The  preachers  make  no  distinction,  and  do  not  drive 
sinners  from  the  Lord's  supper,  and  use  no  ban. 

"  For  all  these,  and  for  other  similar  reasons,  the  Anabaptists 
must,  as  they  say,  separate  themselves  from  us,  and  cannot 
remain  with  us,  unless  they  would  become  partakers  of  our 
pollution  and  punishment.  Wherefore,  their  own  salvation, 
and  their  safety  from  divine  wrath,  and,  consequently,  the 
highest  necessity,  constrain  them  to  form  their  own  separate 
church,  and  to  endure,  on  that  account,  whatever  God  may 
give  them  to  suffer."* 

There  is  in  this  form  of  doctrine  a  singular  mixture  of 
truth  and  error.  Their  fine  sentiments  on  religious  liberty 
would  possess  more  value,  if  the  Anabaptists,  instead  of  being 
the  sufferers,  had  been  in  a  condition  to  prescribe  terms  to 
the  rest  of  the  Christian  world,  and  if  they  had  not  themselves 
talked  of  cutting  off  the  heads  of  priests.  Every  sect  has 
asserted  the  same  just  principles  in  its  distress,  and  has  for- 
gotten them  in  its  prosperity. 

It  may  be  questioned  whether  the  Anabaptists  would  have 
adopted  their  odious  opinions  on  the  subject  of  civil  govern- 
ment, if  they  had  been  left  to  indulge  their  religious  opinions 

*  Fueslin,  vol.  v.  p.  131,  &c. 


228  HISTORY   OF   THE 

and  to  form  tlicir  separate  organization  unmolested.  Some 
of  them,  at  least,  professed  a  •willingness  to  obey  the  civil 
authorities,  if  they  did  not  interfere  with  their  religious  con- 
victions. But  when  the  government  stood  in  their  way  where 
they  thought  their  duty  called  them,  there  was  an  easy  step 
to  the  thought  that  the  government  was  wicked,  an  enemy 
of  God,  and  ought  to  be  abolished.  Hostility  to  secular  rulers 
was,  however,  a  primary  principle  with  Munzer. 


CHAPTER  III. 

PROGRESS  OF  THE  REFORMATION  IN   ZURICH. 

These  disorders  of  the  peasantry  and  the  fanatical  Ana- 
baptists were  eagerly  siezed  upon  by  the  Papists  as  so  many 
proofs  of  the  mischievous  tendency  of  the  Reformation,  which 
they  represented  as  the  prolific  cause  of  disorders  both  in  the 
state  and  in  the  church :  it  divested  faith  of  all  certainty, 
stripped  governments  of  all  authority,  led  to  dissensions  and 
excesses  of  every  kind,  and  turned  the  world  upside  down. 
The  occasion  was  too  inviting  to  be  neglected,  and  they  did 
not  fail  to  make  the  most  of  it.  Cochlaus,  a  Papist  writer, 
says  :  "  There  never  has  been  a  faction  so  seditious,  pestilent, 
and  nefarious,  that  so  plotted  the  abolition  of  all  religion,  the 
overthrow  of  all  laws,  the  corruption  of  all  good  morals,  and 
the  destruction  of  every  commonwealth,  as  this  Lutheran  fac- 
tion ;  which  both  profanes  sacred  things  and  pollutes  the 
profane ;  which  so  preaches  Christ  as  to  trample  upon  his 
sacraments ;  so  trumpets  grace  as  to  destroy  the  freedom  of 
the  will ;  so  extols  faith  as  to  disparage  good  works  and  to 
give  a  license  to  sin ;  so  elevates  mercy  as  to  depress  righteous- 
ness ;  and  which  makes  the  cause  of  all  evil,  not  some  malig- 
nant divinity  at  least,  which  the  Manicheans  feigned,  but  the 
one  truly  good  Being.     While  it  treats  divine  things  in  this 


GERMAN  REFORMED    CHURCH.  229 

impious  manner,  like  the  serpent,  -svliicli,  cast  down  from 
heaven,  pours  out  his  poison  upon  the  earth,  it  moves  dissen- 
sion in  the  church,  abrogates  laws,  paralyzes  magistracies, 
stirs  up  the  laity  against  the  clergy  and  both  against  the 
pope,  and  incites  the  people  against  their  princes :  nor  does 
it  aim  at  anything  else  than  (which  may  heaven  avert)  that, 
under  the  pretext  of  liberty,  the  German  people  should  declare 
war  against  their  rulers,  and  Christians  should  fight  against 
Christians,  for  the  religion  and  faith  of  Christ,  while  the 
enemies  of  Christ  look  on  and  mock."*  Erasmus,  who  would 
have  gone  with  the  reformei'S,  if  they  had  confined  them- 
selves within  the  limits  he  would  have  prescribed,  but  took 
oflfence  both  at  the  compass  of  their  reformation  and  at  the 
boldness  and  the  violence,  particularly  of  Luther's  manner, 
says,  in  his  reply  to  Luther  :  "  Here  we  have  the  fruit  of  your 
spirit ;  afi'airs  are  come  to  a  bloody  catastrophe,  and  we  fear 
still  more  atrocious  things,  if  a  propitious  God  does  not  avert 
them.  You  will  not,  I  suppose,  acknowledge  these  insurgents ; 
but  they  acknowledge  you :  and  it  is  now  found  that  many 
who  boasted  of  the  gospel  have  been  the  instigators  of  the 
fiercest  insurrections.  If  their  attempt  had  succeeded,  some, 
perhaps,  would  have  come  forward  and  commended  it,  who 
now,  since  it  has  failed,  hold  it  in  abhorrence.  In  your  savage 
tract  against  the  peasants,  you  have  repelled  suspicion  from 
yourself;  but  you  have  not  prevented  men  from  believing 
that  in  your  tracts,  especially  in  those  written  in  German, 
against  the  monks,  against  the  bishops,  inbehalf  of  evangelical 
liberty,  and  in  condemnation  of  human  tyranny,  you  have 
given  occasion  to  these  tumults.  I  do  not  think  so  ill  of  you, 
Luther,  as  to  believe  that  you  designed  these  efiects ;  but, 
nevertheless,  when  you  began  this  tragedy,  I  conjectured  long 
ago  that  it  would  come  to  this  result. "f  So  also  Eckius,  in 
his  letter  to  the  Swiss  diet,  poured  out  similar  complaints  in 
torrents  of  invective  against  Zwinsrle  and  other  reformers. 


*  Cochlaus  ad  annum  1523,  fol.  64,  b.  in  Gieseler's  Lehrb.,  vol.  iii.  p.  216. 
f  Erasmus  H^peraspistes,  lib.  i.  in  Gieseler,  &c.,  p.  216, 
U 


230  HISTORY   OF  THE 

These  specimens  serve  to  show  how  violent  a  prejudice 
these  unhappy  disturbances  created  against  the  doctrines  of 
the  reformers,  and  what  hibors  and  discouragements  they  pre- 
pared for  them.  The  Papists,  seeing  their  advantage,  left 
nothing  untried  to  turn  upon  them  an  overwhelming  flood 
of  odium,  to  deprive  them  of  public  confidence,  to  confirm 
their  adherents  in  their  attachment  to  the  old  superstitions, 
and  to  brino;  back  into  the  bosom  of  the  church  those  who 
had  broken  away  from  her  embraces. 

The  supreme  pontifi"  himself,  Clement  VII.,  addressed  a 
letter  to  the  canton  of  Zurich,  dated  Feb.  10,  1525,  which 
was  presented  to  the  council  by  his  legate,  Ennius,  teeming 
with  blandishments  adapted  to  allure  those  who  still  retained 
a  lurking  affection  for  the  see  of  St.  Peter,  and  with  invective 
against  the  Reformation  and  its  promoters.  It  was  evidently 
designed  to  confirm  the  partisans  of  Rome  in  their  attachment 
to  their  religion,  and  to  fan  their  hostility  to  the  changes  that 
were  taking  place  in  the  faith  and  practice  of  their  fellow- 
citizens.* 

Valentine  Compar,  secretary  of  the  canton  of  Uri,  a  man 
of  talents  and  learning,  published  a  work  about  the  same  time, 
in  which  he  endeavored  to  refute  four  of  the  doctrinal  points 
embraced  in  Zwingle's  theses,  viz. :  1.  The  exclusive  authority 
of  the  Bible  as  the  rule  of  faith  ;  2.  The  use  to  be  made  of  the 
fathers,  whom  the  author  considered  as  having  written  under 
divine  inspiration ;  3.  The  use  to  be  made  of  images ;  and 
4.  The  doctrine  of  a  purgatory.  On  the  first  point,  this  writer 
took  the  ground  which  has  since  been  taken  by  infidels, 
namely,  that  the  gospels  of  Matthew,  Mark,  Luke,  and  John 
were  separated  by  the  church  from  the  spurious  gospels  as- 
cribed to  Peter,  Thomas,  Bartholomew,  Nicodemus,  &c.,  and, 
therefore,  rest  for  their  authority  upon  the  judgment  and 
sanction  of  the  church.  Zwingle  acknowledged  that  the  work 
was  able  and  dignified,  and  the  best  defence  of  Romanism 
which  he  had  seen ;  and  he  v/ould,  therefore,  he  said,  treat  its 

*  Hottingei",  &c.,  p.  227. 


/ 


GERJIAN   REFORMED   CHURCH.  231 

author  with  respect,  and  reply  to  him  in  the  same  spirit.  Ilis 
answer  appeared  in  April,  1525,  under  the  title,  "  Answer  to 
Valentine  Compar,  Secretary  of  Urie,  on  the  four  Articles  of 
the  Theses,"  &c.  Where  Zwingle's  answer  was  read,  the 
work  of  his  antagonist  was  rendered  almost  harmless ;  but  in 
the  Papist  cantons,  where  his  writings  could  not  be  circulated, 
Compar  reigned  alone,  and  his  production  could  not  fail  to 
produce  its  effect  in  confirming  his  readers  both  in  their  creed 
and  in  their  hatred  of  the  Reformation.* 

What  the  pope  sought  to  effect  by  his  briefs,  and  Compar 
by  his  attempted  refutation  of  Zwingle,  was  undertaken,  also, 
by  the  Papist  clergy  in  the  pulpit  and  in  the  confessional,  and 
by  the  magistrates  of  the  same  party  in  the  civil  administra- 
tion. Every  thing  was  done  to  enhance  the  difficulties  with 
which  the  reformers  struggled,  and  to  crush  their  eff"ort  before 
it  could  gather  strength  to  sustain  itself,  and  to  rise  up  under 
the  pressure ;  and  when  to  this  is  added  the  disturbed  state 
of  the  peasantry,  the  wild  misrule  of  the  Anabaptists,  and  the 
hostile  attitude  soon  afterward  assumed  by  the  disaff"ected 
cantons,  it  will  be  seen  that  the  prospect  around  Zurich  and 
her  reformation  was  truly  dark  and  lowering  :  and  to  all  this 
must  yet  be  added  the  lamentable  breach  between  the  Swiss 
and  the  Saxon  reformers  on  the  subject  of  the  Lord's  supper, 
of  which  we  shall  presently  have  occasion  to  speak. 

Zurich,  nevertheless,  continued  in  her  onward  course,  not, 
indeed,  without  an  apprehension  of  danger  and  a  feeling  of 
distress,  but  without  permitting  herself  to  be  stopped  in  her 
way  when  she  once  knew  that  it  was  the  way  of  truth  and 
the  path  of  duty. 

In  the  commencement  of  the  year,  the  council  published  an 
address  to  the  other  cantons,  under  the  title,  Entschuldigungs- 
Schrift  deren  von  Zurich  an  ihre  3Iit-Eidgenossen  ihr  Ver- 
fahren  in  dem  Reformations- Werk  betreffendjf — "Apology 


*  Ilottinger,  &c.,  p.  227. 

f  Fucslin,  vol.  i.  p.  293,  &c.     The  document  bears  this  title  in  Fueslin's 
Beitriise. 


232  HISTORY   OP   THE 

of  tliose  of  Zuricbi  to  their  Confederates,  respecting  their 
Proceeding  in  the  Work  of  Reformation."  In  this  apology, 
they  state  their  ohject  to  be,  first,  to  explain  the  causes  of  the 
hostile  feelings  of  their  fellow-confederates  ;  secondly,  to  reply 
to  some  articles  that  were  interpreted  otherwise  than  they  in- 
tended them ;  and,  thirdly,  to  open  their  hearts  and  exhibit  the 
fidelity  and  love  which  they  had  ahvays  borne  toward  the 
confederacy,  and,  if  God  pleased,  would  for  ever  bear,  at  the 
expense  of  their  life,  honor,  and  property.  They  considered 
as  the  primary  causes  of  all  the  hostility  of  their  confede- 
rates the  refusal  of  Zui'ich  to  unite  with  them  in  the  treaty 
of  alliance  with  Francis  I.  of  France,  in  1521,  by  which  the 
twelve  cantons  had  united  their  fortune  Avith  his  during  his 
lifetime,  and  for  some  years' after  his  death;  and  the  succors 
which  Zurich  had  granted  to  the  pope  for  the  protection  of 
the  territories  of  the  church,  but  on  the  express  condition  that 
they  should  not  be  employed  against  France,  with  which 
Zurich  was  at  peace.  ,  It  so  happened  that,  when  the  Zurichian 
auxiliaries  had  entered  Italy,  and  all  the  means  of  bribery 
and  corruption  which  the  French  employed  to  persuade  them 
to  join  their  countrymen  in  the  army  of  France  had  failed, 
they  were  stopped  at  the  river  Oglio  by  a  body  of  French, 
who  were  ordered  to  oppose  their  passage  into  the  ecclesiastical 
states,  and  to  force  them  back  into  their  own  country,  inas- 
much as  the  pope  was  in  alliance  with  the  emperor  and  at  war 
with  France,  and  they  Avere  compelled  to  open  their  way  by 
force,  after  all  amicable  expostulation  had  been  tried  in  vain ; 
and  this  occurrence  furnished  a  plea  to  regard  them,  and  the 
canton  from  which  they  came,  as  enemies  of  France  and  of 
her  Swiss  allies.  The  subsequent  expulsion  of  the  French 
from  Milan,  and  the  recovery  of  Parma  and  Placentia  by 
the  pope,  added  to  the  return  of  the  troops  of  the  twelve 
cantons  discomfited  and  destitute,  created  in  those  cantons  a 
mortal  enmity  against  Zurich,  and  difi'used  itself  from  her 
political  acts  over  her  religious  reformation.  The  council 
give,  in  this  part  of  their  apology,  very  consistent  explanations 
of  the  reasons  of  their  firm  and  persevering  refusal  to  unite 


GERMAN   REFORMED   CHURCH.  233 

with  their  brethren  in  that  alliance,  and  of  the  support  which 
thej  had  furnished  to  his  holiness  and  the  states  of  the  church, 
and  delicately  intimate  that  they  had  done  only  Avhat  all  the 
cantons  ought  to  have  done.  In  the  second  part,  they  reply 
to  the  false  accusations  that  were  circulated  against  them,  and 
state  the  manifold  grievances  they  had  borne.  Among  these 
the  abduction  of  Taurcolus,  the  burning  of  the  convent  of 
Ittingen  by  a  mob,  and  the  wrongs  of  Zurich  in  the  treatment 
of  Riitiman  and  the  Wirts,  occupy  a  prominent  place,  and  are 
related  with  an  aflfecting  simplicity  and  tenderness.  In  the 
third,  they  recount  the  instances  of  the  generous  support  which 
Zurich  had  always  given  to  her  confederates  in  the  times  of 
public  danger,  at  the  expense  of  much  blood  and  treasure,  and 
of  the  proofs  which  their  history  furnished  of  her  fidelity  to 
the  common  oath,  and  protest  her  sincere  purpose  to  preserve 
inviolate  the  faith  of  the  confederation  in  all  future  time. 
This  apology,  conceived  in  a  calm  and  mild  spirit,  and  expressed 
in  the  kindest  and  most  respectful  terms,  ought,  at  least,  to 
have  softened  the  asperity  of  the  offended  cantons,  if  it  did 
not  wholly  extinguish  every  unfriendly  feeling.  It  produced 
this  eflFect,  however,  only  in  part.  Soon  afterwards,  an  embassy 
arrived  at  Zurich  from  six  of  the  cantons,  who  urged  again 
the  complaints  which  they  had  advanced  before,  irrespective 
of  the  answers  they  had  received.  The  council  now  contented 
t'hcmselves  with  referring  them  to  published  writings  of  Zwin- 
gle,  with  copies  of  which  they  supplied  them.  The  same 
calumnies  having  reached  the  Cfrisons,  where  the  seeds  of  the 
Reformation  were  beginning  to  germinate,  the  reformer  ad- 
dressed a  circular  to  the  three  leagues,  to  guard  them  against 
the  injurious  impressions  which  they  might  receive  from  those 
slanders,  before  they  had  calmly  examined  the  truth.*  ^ 

AVhile  the  government  were  thus  attentive  to  the  vindication 
of  their  cause  abroad,  they  were  equally  careful  to  correct 
abuses  and  to  improve  the  condition  of  the  people  at  home. 
Among  their  first  measures,  this  year,  was  the  establishment 


*  Voegelin's  Jahrtafel  ad  annum  1525,  p.  48. 
u2  30 


234  HISTORY   OF  THE 

of  a  public  almonry  for  the  relief  of  the  poor,  both  foreign 
and  native,  and  the  abolition  of  street-begging.  The  funds 
for  this  object  were  obtained  by  the  sale  of  five  estates  of 
vacant  canonships,  and  of  twenty-three  chaplaincies,  and 
from  the  proceeds  of  useless  church  ornaments,  and  property 
of  surrendered  convents.  The  management  of  the  institu- 
tion was  committed  to  a  board  of  seven  members,  two  of  whom 
were  taken  from  the  chapter,  two  from  the  lower,  and  two 
from  the  greater  council ;  the  seventh,  who  presided  as  um- 
pire, was  probably  chosen  by  these.  Street-begging  was 
prohibited.  Those  who  indulged  in  acts  of  vice,  or  neglected 
the  public  duties  of  religion,  and  all  who  wore  ornaments 
of  gold  or  silver,  were  excluded  from  the  benefits  of  the 
institution.* 

Another  important  measure  was  the  establishment  of  what 
was  called  in  German  JEliegerielit,  that  is,  a  court  of  matrimo- 
nial affairs,  a  consistory,  or  a  tribunal  which  had  jurisdiction 
of  marriages,  and  of  all  the  cases  and  interests  that  arise  from 
marf iage,  or  have  relation  to  it ;  as  incest,  adultery,  divorce, 
illegitimacy,  dowers,  wills,  intestate  estates,  &c.  These  sub- 
jects had  belonged  to  the  bishop's  jurisdiction,  and  all  cases 
of  this  kind  arising  in  his  diocese  were  brought  to  his  court 
in  Constance,  usually  at  much  expense  of  time  and  money, 
and  always  with  the  payment  of  heavy  fees,  which  constituted 
a  part  of  the  episcopal  revenues,  and  which  the  rapacious 
ecclesiastics  exacted  with  rigor.  The  bishop  had  been  gra- 
dually divested  of  his  authority  over  the  churches  and  the 
clergy  of  this  canton,  and  the  power  which  he  had  exercised 
had  passed  insensibly  into  the  hands  of  the  civil  government ; 
but  he  still  continued  to  exercise  jurisdiction  in  matrimonial 
cases,  and  to  annoy  the  people  with  demands  for  his  episcopal 
fees.  To  remove  this  annoyance,  and  to  complete  the  inde- 
pendence of  the  people  from  foreign  control,  the  government 
now  established  this  tribunal  at  home,  for  the  adjudication  of 
all  such  cases.     It  was  composed  of  two  members  of  each  of 

*  Hottinger,  p.  221. 


GERMAN   REFORMED    CHURCH.  235 

the  councils,  and  two  of  the  pastors  of  the  city.  Its  first 
session  was  held  May  15,  1525.* 

As  the  light  of  truth  increased,  and  the  spirit  of  the  gospel 
■was  more  and  more  diffused,  other  changes  succeeded.  The 
provost  and  chapter  of  Emhrach  surrendered  their  endowments 
to  government.  The  abbots  of  Stein  and  Rati  also  gave  up 
their  convents ;  but  these  treacherous  prelates  first  secured 
the  treasures  and  the  papers  of  their  institutions,  and,  after 
the  surrender,  absconded,  leaving  to  government  the  naked 
walls.  The  nuns  of  the  convents  of  Selnau  and  Sammlung, 
who  were  unwilling  to  relinquish  the  monastic  life,  were  placed 
in  the  convent  of  Oetenhacli  with  the  remnant  of  its  inmates, 
and  their  own  monasteries  were  appropriated  to  other  uses.f 
We  have  already  taken  notice  of  the  reformation  of  the  chap- 
ter of  St.  Felix  and  Regula,  and  the  prospective  conversion 
of  its  funds  to  the  purposes  of  education  and  of  the  relief  of 
the  poor.  The  chapter  now  went  farther,  surrendering  to 
government  their  immunities  and  prerogatives,  and  becoming 
subject,  like  common  citizens,  to  the  laws  of  the  state  ;  and, 
in  the  month  of  September,  they  transferred  to  government 
the  possession  of  their  property  and  funds,  the  interest  of 
which  became  applicable,  as  the  benefices  became  vacant,  to 
the  several  objects  which  the  government  contemplated.  The 
female  convent  of  Toss  also  was  secularized,  and  the  nuns 
were  provided  for  by  pensions. J 

Zwingle  could  now  give  effect  to  his  long-cherished  desire 
of  making  Zurich  a  seat  of  solid  learning,  especially  in  classic 
and  sacred  literature  and  in  scriptural  theology.  For  this 
purpose,  he  sought  first  to  furnish  his  seminary  with  able  in- 
structors in  the  Latin,  Greek,  and  Hebrew  languages,  a 
knowledge  of  which  he  considered  of  the  first  importance  to  a 
biblical  student.  Through  his  agency,  Jacob  Ceporinus,  or 
Wicscndanger,  was  appointed,  as  early  as  1522,  professor  of 
Greek  and  Hebrew ;  but  there  being  yet  no  funds  for  the 
support  of  professorships,  and  Ceporinus  having  an  engage- 

*  Hottinger,  p.  233.  f  Ibid.  p.  231,  232,  %  Ibid. 


236  HISTORY   OP   THE 

ment  in  Basel,  he  soon  returned  to  that  city,  and  first  began 
his  public  kibors  in  Zurich  in  the  summer  of  1525.*  His 
useful  services  were  terminated  by  his  death,  at  the  close  of 
the  year.  He  was  succeeded  in  the  Hebrew  professorship  by 
Conrad  Pellicanus,  or  Kirshner,  a  native  of  Alsace.  Pelli- 
canus  was  originally  a  monk  of  the  order  of  St.  Francis.  By 
diligent  application,  he  acquired  a  knowledge  of  Hebrew  with- 
out an  instructor,  but  subsequently  perfected  his  acquaintance 
with  it  under  the  tuition  of  the  celebrated  Reuchlin.  In  1523, 
his  reputation  as  a  theologian  procured  him  the  associate  pro- 
fessorship of  theology  in  Basel.  In  the  course  of  his  reading 
and  intercourse  with  men  of  genius,  he  obtained  an  insight 
into  the  religion  of  the  Bible ;  but  much  of  his  discoveries  in 
this  province  was  the  result  of  his  own  investigation.  During 
his  official  labors  in  Zurich,  much  of  his  attention  being 
directed  to  the  interpretation  of  the  Holy  Scriptures,  he 
acquired  eminent  skill  in  biblical  exegesis,  and  became  a 
useful  assistant  in  the  Reformation,  as  well  as  an  ornament  to 
the  institution  to  which  his  services  were  more  directly  given. 
His  labors  in  the  seminary  began  on  the  first  of  March,  1526. 
He  still  wore  the  habit  of  his  order,  which,  however,  he  laid 
aside  soon  after  he  had  assumed  the  duties  of  his  new  situa- 
tion. The  Latin  professor  was  Jacob  Ammianus,  or  Amman, 
who,  besides  teaching  the  language,  read  lectures  on  Quinc- 
tilian  and  Cicero.  Rudolph  Collinus,  or  Collin,  was  professor 
of  Greek.  Zwingle  himself  was  the  theological  professor. 
This  duty  he  performed,  in  addition  to  his  arduous  office  of 
principal  pastor,  and  the  rectorship  also  of  the  school  attached 
to  the  minster,  which  he  had  recently  assumed  upon  the  death 
of  the  Ludi-moderator,  the  canon  Dr.  Niessli.  After  his 
death,  the  professorship  was  separated  from  the  pastorate ; 
H.  Bullinger  succeeded  him  in  the  latter,  and  the  former  was 
given  to  Bibliander,  or  Buchman. 

The  number  of  the  professorships  was  at  first  four,  namely, 
1st,  the  theological ;  2d,  the  Latin  ;   3d,  the  Greek  ;  4th,  the 

*  Hottinger,  p.  52,  99,  233.     Fueslin,  vol.  i.  p.  193,  note  36. 


GERMAN  REFORMED   CHURCH.  237 

Hebrew.  Some  time  afterward,  two  other  professorships  were 
added  ;  namely,  the  second  theological  professorship  and  the 
professorship  of  natural  philosophy.  Josiah  Simlar  was  the 
first  who  filled  the  former  of  these,  and  the  latter  was  given  to 
Conrad  Gesner. 

Agreeably  to  the  compact  between  the  chapter  and  the 
council,  the  number  of  the  canons  was  reduced  by  omitting  to 
fill  vacancies,  and,  when  appointments  were  made,  they  were 
given  to  men  who  performed  the  duties  of  professors  in  the 
seminary,  or  of  ministers  of  the  gospel.  The  number  to  which 
the  reduction  was  at  first  brought  was  eight ;  viz.  1st,  the 
pastor  of  the  Minster ;  2d,  the  first  assistant  preacher  ;  3d, 
the  second  assistant  preacher  ;  4th,  the  professor  of  theology ; 
5th,  the  professor  of  the  Latin  language  and  literature  ;  6th, 
the  professor  of  the  Greek  language  and  literature;  7th,  the 
professor  of  Hebrew  ;  8th,  the  pastor  of  the  fourth  parish 
church,  formerly  belonging  to  the  Dominicans.  To  these 
were  afterward  added  the  two  additional  professorships  of 
theology  and  natural  philosophy,  being  in  all  ten  canonships. 
At  a  still  later  period,  the  tvro  professorships  of  Latin  and 
Hebrew  were  separated  from  the  canonship,  and  a  new  pro- 
fessorship of  logic,  rhetoric,  and  metaphysics  was  united  with 
it ;  the  tenth  canonship  was  then  sometimes  given  to  the 
Ludi-moderator,  or  principal  of  the  school  at  the  Minster. 
The  income  from  the  endowments  was  divided  into  eighteen 
portions  ;  of  these  ten  were  appropriated  to  the  salaries  of  the 
professors  and  teachers  above  described,  and  eight  were  ap- 
plied to  other  uses.  The  revenues  of  the  chaplaincies,  all  of 
which  were  left  to  expire,*  were  generally  devoted  to  the 
objects  of  the  almonry.  The  endowments  were  thus  restored 
to  their  original  destination  after  seven  cen1*iries  of  abuse 
and  waste  upon  a  body  of  proud,  idle,  and  useless  eccle- 
siastics.f 

The  form  of  Zwingle's  theological  instructions  was  peculiar. 

*  When  the  number  of  canons  and  chaplains  was  reduced  to  eight,  the  dis- 
tinction was  abolished,  and  all  were  called  canons. 
■}•  Fueslin,  yoI.  i.  p.  14,  note  4  ;  p.  21,  note  7. 


238  HISTORY   OF   THE 

The  following  account  of  tlicm  is  given  by  Fueslin,  from  the 
old  constitution  of  the  church  of  Zurich :  "  They  were  called 
the  Prophecy,  that  is,  the  exposition  of  the  Scripture.  The 
lections  were  held  in  the  choir  of  the  Great-Minster,  at  the 
hours  formerly  appropriated  to  the  choir-service.  The  title 
in  the  church-constitution  is,  Form  of  holding  the  Prophecy. 
Then  follows :  '  Inasmuch  as  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  has  said 
by  the  prophets  :  This  people  draw  near  to  me  with  their 
lips,  but  their  heart  is  far  from  me ;  but  in  vain  do  they  serve 
me,  teaching  for  doctrines  the  commandments  of  men ;  and 
in  another  place :  Wo  unto  you,  scribes  and  pharisees,  who 
devour  widows'  houses,  and  for  a  pretence  make  long  prayers ; 
for  ye  shall  receive  the  greater  damnation  ;'  inasmuch  also  as 
the  apostle  Paul  has  said,  that  he  would  rather  speak  five  words 
with  his  understanding,  than  ten  thousand  words  in  an  un- 
known tongue ;  we  therefore  have  abolished  the  mercenary 
church-prayer  and  the  choir-service,  and  have  substituted  the 
Prophecy,  agreeably  to  Paul's  teaching.  This  shall  be  per- 
formed in  the  following  manner :  commencing  with  the  begin- 
ning of  the  Bible,  the  whole  shall  be  read  with  great  diligence 
in  successive  lessons  to  the  end,  in  the  course  of  several  years. 
For  this  purpose,  one  hour  or  more  every  day  shall  be  taken 
of  the  time  which  has  heretofore  been  appropriated  to  the 
singing  of  prime,  third,  and  sixth  in  the  choir.  A  student 
shall  read  a  chapter,  or  half  a  chapter,  in  course,  from  the 
Latin  version  of  Jerome.  The  same  shall  then  be  read  by 
the  Hebrew  reader,  who  shall  explain  the  idioms  of  that  lan- 
guage. After  this,  the  same  shall  be  read  in  the  Greek 
version  of  the  seventy  interpreters.  Finally,  the  whole  shall 
be  expounded,  with  the  utmost  care,  to  the  intelligent  and 
learned  in  Latin.  This  the  minister  of  the  word  shall  explain 
also  to  the  common  people  in  German,  from  the  pulpit,  with 
the  addition  of  a  prayer.' — This  manner,"  says  Fueslin, 
"was  pursued  until  the  time  of  Peter  Martyr.  When  he 
became  professor,  in  155G,  his  first  act  was  to  abolish  these 
popish  hours,  and  to  introduce  the  arrangement  by  which 
each  of  the  professors  of  theology  lectured  alternately  one 


GERMAN   REFORMED   CHURCH.  239 

week."  According  to  Hottinger,  this  arrangement  be^-an 
as  early  as  1534,  ^vlien  each  of  the  professors  lectured  alter- 
nately one  week,  the  one  expounding  a  book  of  the  Old 
Testament,  and  the  other  a  book  of  the  New  Testament.  But 
these  lectures  seem  to  have  been  at  that  time  superadded  to 
Zwingle's  lections,  which  were,  probably,  superseded  by  them 
and  discontinued  from  the  time  of  Peter  Martyr.  Hottinger 
first  states  that  the  lections  were  attended  by  all  the  preachers, 
professors,  canons,  chaplains,  and  students,  and  then  observes : 
"  In  1534,  the  summer-auditory  was  built,  aijd  these,  as  well 
as  other  expositions  of  the  Scriptures,  were  transferred  thither ; 
where,  in  the  presetice  of  the  students  only,  the  alternating 
theologians  again  expounded,  one  a  book  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment, and  the  other  a  book  of  the  New.*  Zwingle  opened 
every  exercise  with  the  following  prayer,  which  continued  to 
be  used  many  years  after  his  time:  "Almighty,  eternal, 
and  merciful  God,  whose  word  is  a  lamp  to  our  feet  and  a 
light  to  our  path,  open  and  enlighten  our  minds,  that  we  may 
piously  and  devoutly  understand  thine  oracles,  and  may  be 
changed  into  the  likeness  of  that  which  we  understand,  so 
that  we  may  in  no  respect  displease  thy  majesty ;  through 
Jesus  Christ  our  Lord,  Amen."t 

On  the  same  days  on  which  the  leetiones  were  held  in  the 
morning  on  the  Old  Testament,  there  was  an  exercise,  also, 
on  the  New  Testament,  in  the  afternoon  at  three  o'clock,  under 
the  direction  of  Myconius,  in  the  church  of  Notre  Dame.  It 
Avas  attended  by  many  of  the  laity  of  both  sexes,  as  well  as 
by  the  clergy  and  students,  and,  for  the  common  benefit,  was 
conducted  in  the  German  language. | 

By  this  mode  of  teaching  theology,  an  extensive  and  accu- 
rate knowledge  of  the  Holy  Scriptures  was  obtained  by  the 
clergy  and  difi"used  among  the  people.  It  was,  therefore, 
admirably  adapted  to  the   exigency  of  the  times,  in  which 


*  Hottinger,  p.  233. 

f  Bibl.  Repert.  and  Princeton  Review  for  April,  1841,  p.  219. 

X  Hottinger,  p.  233. 


240  HISTORY   OP   THE 

nothing  was  so  much  -svanted  as  a  knowledge  of  the  Bible ;  and 
a  good  foundation  Avas  thus  laid  for  the  reformation  of  the 
church  in  her  doctrine  and  Avorship,  and  in  the  life  and 
character  of  her  members.  The  prominence  which  Zwingle 
gave  everywhere  to  biblical  instruction,  proceeded  from  his 
fundamental  principle,  The  Bible  is  the  ivord  of  God. — Its 
authority/  is  above  all  authority. — Fi^oni  it  must  reformation 
proceed. — It  must  be  brought  to  bear  upon  the  understanding 
and  the  heart,  and  then  left  to  do  its  own  worlc. 

The  same  principle  turned  the  attention  of  the  Swiss  re- 
former and  his  co-workers  to  a  popular  translation  of  the  Holy 
Scriptures  in  the  vernacular  tongue.  Luther  had  already 
published  his  version  of  the  New  Testament,  and  some  portions 
of  the  Old,  which  were  extensively  circulated  and  read  ;  but 
his  Misnian  dialect  was  not  always  intelligible  to  the  Swiss 
readers  and  in  the  neighboring  parts  of  G-ermany ;  and  Zwin- 
gle and  his  associates  thought,  also,  that  the  sense  of  the 
original  was  not  everywhere  accurately  conveyed  by  the  ver- 
sion. They,  therefore,  undertook  a  revision  of  Luther's  trans- 
lation as  far  as  it  was  published,  collated  it  with  the  original 
text,  and  altered  it  in  those  places  where,  in  their  judgment, 
the  sense  of  the  sacred  writer  could  be  expressed  with  more 
exactness,  and  where  words  or  phrases  occurred  that  were  not 
sufficiently  understood  in  southern  (xermawy  and  in  Sivitzerland. 
But  in  the  Psalms,  Job,  the  three  books  of  Solomon,  and  the 
Prophets,  they  translated  entirely  from  the  Hebrew  text, 
Luther's  version  of  those  books  being  not  yet  published.  The 
translation  of  the  Apocrypha  is  the  work  of  Leo  Juda.  The 
whole  Swiss  version  is  sometimes  ascribed  to  the  same  author ; 
it  was,  however,  the  joint  production  of  several  hands,  and  a 
fruit  of  the  so-called  Prophecg  or  expository  lections.  Zwin- 
gle, Engelhard,  Hoffmeister,  Leo  Juda,  Pellicanus,  Megander 
or  Grossman,  Myconius,  Bibliander  or  Buchman,  &c.,  were, 
during  this  period,  employed  in  Zurich,  and  constituted  the 
learned  college  in  which  Leo  presided ;  and  all  these,  doubt- 
less, contributed  to  the  work.  It  is  ascribed  to  the  ministers 
of  the  church  in  general,  in  the  prefaces  to  the  editions  of 


GERMAN   REFORMED    CHURCH.  241 

1531  and  1536.  The  reason  of  its  being  ascribed  to  Leo 
Juda  as  its  author  is,  probably,  to  be  found  in  the  fact,  that, 
as  president  of  the  college,  he  was  principally  occupied  with 
it,  and  had  a  general  superintendence  of  it  in  its  progress. 
The  first  part  appeared  in  1525,  and  the  second  in  1529.  The 
whole  work  was  revised  and  published  in  1531.  In  1538, 
Michael  Adam,  a  learned  Jew,  coming  to  Zurich,  and  staying 
at  the  house  of  Pellicanus,  he  was  induced,  in  conjunction 
with  Leo  Juda,  to  revise  the  version  and  collate  it  anew  with 
the  Hebrew  text ;  and  this  revised  edition  was  published  in 
1540.* 

Leo  Juda  labored,  also,  on  a  Latin  translation  of  the  Old 
Testament,  which  he  did  not  live  to  finish.  Several  books 
being  still  wanting,  he  committed  the  work,  before  his  death, 
to  his  friend  Theodore  Buchman,  (Bibliander,)  by  whom  it 
was  completed,  with  the  assistance  of  Pellicanus,  Peter  Choli, 
and  Rudolph  Gualter,  and  published  in  1543. f 

[In  1667,  a  revised  translation  of  the  German  version  was 
published  at  Zurich.  "  The  alterations  and  corrections  in  it," 
says  Mr.  Home,  "  are  so  numerous,  that  it  is  considered  as  a 
new  translation,  and  is  commonly  called  the  New  Zurich 
Bible,  in  contradistinction  from  the  Old  Zurich  version  of  Leo 
Juda.  It  was  undertaken  by  Hottinger,  Mliller,  Zeller,  Hoff- 
meister,  and  others,  and  conducted  with  great  care  and  preci- 
sion. As  this  plan  seems  to  have  had  some  resemblance  to 
that  pursued  by  our  own  admirable  translators,  and  may, 
perhaps,  have  been  copied  from  it,  this  version  is  more  par- 
ticularly worthy  of  notice.  When  these  learned  men  met 
together,  Hottinger  and  Mliller  had  each  of  them  the  Hebrew 
text  put  into  their  hands,  Zeller  had  the  old  Zurich  version, 
Wasser  took  the  Italian  version  of  Giovanni  Diodati  and 
Pareus'  edition  of  Luther's  Bible,  Ilofimeister  had  the  Sep- 
tuagint  and  the  Junio-Tremellian  version  before  him,  and 
Freitz  the  Belgian  Bible.     When  any  diiFerencc  arose,  the 

*  Hottinger,  p.  224,  &c.     Schroeck's  Kirch.  Gesch.,  vol.  ii.  p.  137. 
f  Ibid. 

V  31 


242  HISTORY   OF   THE 

point  was  argued  by  tlicm  all.  Each  of  them  was  called  upon 
to  give  his  opinion  of  the  translation  in  his  hands ;  and  that 
reading  was  adopted  which,  after  mature  consideration,  seemed 
most  agreeable  to  the  Hebrew." — "As  the  Zurich  version 
differed  very  materially  from  that  of  Luther,  John  Piscator 
undertook  another  from  the  Latin  version  of  Junius  and  Tre- 
mellius,  which  he  has  followed  very  closely.  It  appeared  in 
detached  portions,  between  the  years  1602  and  1604,  and  was 
repeatedly  printed  during  the  seventeenth  century.  Piscator's 
version,  having  become  very  scarce,  has  lately  been  revised 
by  the  biblical  and  divinity  professors,  and  three  pastors  of 
the  Helvetic  church,  who  have  corrected  its  orthography,  and 
such  words  as  have  become  obsolete,  previously  to  an  edition 
of  eight  thousand  copies  of  the  entire  Bible  and  four  thousand 
of  the  New  Testament,  which  has  been  executed  by  the  Bern 
Bible  Society,  aided  by  a  pecuniary  grant  of  the  British  and 
Foreign  Bible  Society."*] 

Hitherto  Zwingle  had  not  published  a  systematic  exposition 
of  the  doctrine  which  he  taught,  and  the  Reformed  Church  of 
Zurich  received  and  professed,  as  the  system  of  Christianity. 
His  sixty-seven  theses,  and  the  explanation  and  defence  of 
them,  did  not  form  a  system  of  Christian  doctrine,  and  were 
not  designed  as  such :  they  were  polemic  propositions,  ex- 
plained and  defended,  and  embraced  only  the  points  of  diver- 
gence from  the  system  of  the  church  of  Rome,  upon  which  he 
was  desirous  of  proving  his  own  orthodoxy  and  confuting  his 
adversaries.  Although  his  followers  were  numerous,  not  only 
in  the  city  and  canton  of  Zurich,  but  in  other  parts  of  Stvitzer- 
land,  and  beyond  it,  in  Itali/,  France,  and  Crermany,  nothing 
was  yet  declared  and  acknowledged,  as  a  bond  of  communion, 
besides  the  general  principle,  Tliat  tlie  Bible  is  the  standard 
and  rule  of  faith  and  practice,  according  to  which  the  ministers 
of  religion  are  hoimd  to  teach,  and  the  memhers  of  the  church 
to  believe  and  live.  This  was  sufficient  as  the  test  of  ortho- 
doxy and  the  rule  of  individual  direction,  but  it  furnished  no 

*  Home's  Introduction  to  the  Bible,  vol.  ii.  p.  230,  &c. 


GERMAN   REFORMED    CHUIlCn.  24S 

answer  to  the  (juestion  what  doctrines  the  reformers  had 
drawn  from  the  Bible,  and  their  followers  in  Zurich  received ; 
neither  was  a  suflicient  answer  found  in  the  published  writings 
of  Zwingle.  Many  of  his  friends,  particularly  those  in  Italij  and 
France,  therefore  requested  him  to  put  forth  a  work  that  would 
exhibit  a  complete  view  of  his  doctrines,  both  for  the  informa- 
tion of  the  sincere  inquirer  and  for  the  confutation  of  those 
"who  misrepresented  and  reviled  the  Reformation ;  and  this 
was  the  more  necessary  now,  after  the  rise  of  the  Anabaptists, 
whom  the  malicious  and  the  ignorant  confounded  with  the 
Reformed,  and  whose  errors  and  extravagances  were  charged 
to  the  Reformation.  Moved  by  these  considerations,  he  wrote 
Lis  principal  work,  entitled,  "  Commentarius  de  Vera  et  Falsa 
Meligione  f  that  is,  A  Treatise  on  True  and  False  Religion. 
This  work  was  published  in  Latin,  in  March,  1525,  and  was 
translated  into  German  by  Leo  Juda,  and  published  in  the 
following  year.  It  was  dedicated  to  Francis  I.,  king  of 
France,  in  whose  dominions  the  Reformed  were  cruelly  perse- 
cuted, and  whom  he  wished  to  conciliate  to  their  injured 
cause.  Shroeck  says  of  it :  "  Without  being  strictly  system- 
atic, it  is  a  monument  of  original  investigations,  of  a  familiar 
acquaintance  with  biblical  doctrines,  which  are  unfolded  with 
much  care,  and  of  various  learning,  and  is  written  in  a  fine 
style."*  It  is  not  a  complete  system,  though  fuller  than 
Melancthon's  Loci  Communes,  which  appeared  first  in  1521 ; 
several  articles  of  the  theological  system  are  still  wanting  in 
it.  This  deficiency  may  have  been  owing  to  the  haste  with 
which  the  author  was  obliged  to  prepare  it  for  the  press ;  but 
it  answered,  nevertheless,  the  main  design  of  its  publication. 

In  this  treatise,  Zwingle  propounded  several  doctrines  in 
which  he  differed  from  the  Saxon  reformer.  Among  them 
were,  particularly,  his  theory  of  what  the  theological  schools 
have  termed  "original  sin,"  but  in  German  systems,  is  called 
"  erbsunde,"  that  is,  hereditary  sin;  and  his  opinion  on  the 
Lord's  supper.     On  the  former  of  these  doctrines,  he  agreed 

*  Schroeck'a  Kirch.  Gesch.  s.  d.  Ref.,  vol.  v.  p.  98. 


244  .  HISTORY   OF  THE 

with  Luther  and  the  earlier  divines  in  teaching  that  human 
nature  is  wholly  depraved,  that  its  depravity  is  propagated  by 
natural  generation,  and  that  it  is  derived  from  Adam  as  a 
consequence  of  his  transgression  in  Paradise.  He  called  this 
depravity  Pest,  morbus  ;  that  is,  a  disorder,  disease,  infirmity, 
or  faultiness,  and  conceived  it  to  be  a  selfishness  or  predomi- 
nating self-love,  that  generates  enmity  against  God  and 
against  his  law,  disqualifies  for  holy  exercises,  is  the  fountain 
of  all  sin,  and  excludes  from  heaven.  But  he  denied  that  it 
is  itself  sin,  apart  from  the  wrong  action  which  arises  from  it. 
Sin,  in  the  proper  sense,  he  defined  to  be  actual  transgression 
of  the  known  law  of  God ;  of  which  infants  are  incapable. 
Inherent  depravity,  he  said,  is  called  sin,  indeed,  but  is  so 
called  in  an  improper  sense :  it  is  not  a  wrong  action,  but  a 
disorder,  disease,  infirmity,  or  faulty  condition  of  our  nature, 
that  is  derived  to  us  through  our  birth,  and  cleaves  to  us  with- 
out any  agency  or  fault  of  our  own.  It  was  inflicted  upon 
Adam  as  a  punishment  of  his  transgression,  and  was  the  death 
which  he  died  on  the  very  day  in  which  he  ate  of  the  forbidden 
fruit ;  and  it  cleaves  to  all  his  posterity,  because,  being  him- 
self now  reduced  to  this  faulty  and  diseased  condition,  it  was 
impossible  that  his  descendants  should  be  in  any  other.  His 
posterity  are  born  in  this  condition  by  a  transgression  and  a 
fault,  indeed ;  but  it  is  by  the  transgression  and  the  fault  of 
their  common  progenitor,  and  not  by  their  own.  This  is 
illustrated  by  the  case  of  a  prisoner  of  war  in  ancient  times: 
by  his  enmity  and  deceit,  the  hostile  soldier  deserved,  when 
captured,  to  be  reduced  to  slavery ;  and  he  is,  therefore,  made 
a  slave.  If  in  this  condition  he  becomes  the  father  of  children, 
his  offspring  are  not  freemen,  but  slaves.  Their  slavery  is 
now  a  condition  and  a  punishment,  which  they  derive  from 
their  father,  not  through  any  fault  of  their  own,  but  through 
liis  fault.  This  depravity  of  our  nature  is  the  cause  of  natu- 
ral death,  which  affects  infants,  who  have  never  properly 
sinned,  as  well  as  adults,  who  are  actual  sinners.  This  he 
illustrates  by  the  case  of  a  young  beast  of  prey,  which  has 
never  yet  ravened.     Its  nature   is  to   raven  as  soon  as  it 


GERMAN   REFORMED   CHURCH.  246 

attain.?  to  a  proper  age,  though  it  has  not  yet  committed  the 
act  of  taking  prey.  The  hunter,  therefore,  knowing  its  na- 
ture, does  not  spare  it,  though  an  inoffensive  cub,  any  more 
than  he  spares  the  adult  beast  that  prowls  without  ceasing ; 
and  it  dies  for  the  fault  of  its  nature,  in  creating  which  it  had 
no  agency,  and  for  the  acts  of  others  which  it  never  com- 
mitted. Infants,  however,  having  never  properly  sinned,  are 
not  subjected  to  eternal  death.  The  death  of  Christ  atones 
for  the  guilt,  if  it  may  be  so  called,  of  inherent  depravity,  and 
thus  opens  to  them  the  gate  of  heaven ;  and  no  one  is  con- 
demned to  eternal  death  except  for  his  proper  personal  sin.* 

This  doctrine  Zwingle  had  taught  before,  in  his  work  "  On 
Baptism,  Rebaptism,  and  Infant-baptism."  He  taught  and 
defended  it  afterwards,  in  his  letter  to  Urbanus  Rhe^ius,  in 
1526,  and  in  his  Confession  of  Faith,  transmitted  to  the  em- 
peror Charles  Y.,  at  the  diet  of  Augsburg,  in  1530. 

In  his  doctrine  on  the  Lord's  supper,  Zwingle  rejected  the 
prevailing  notion  of  a  bodily  presence  of  Christ  in  the  elements 
of  the  sacrament,  admitted  only  a  spiritual  participation  of  him 
by  faith,  which  he  confined  to  the  believing  communicant,  and 
held  the  elements  of  bread  and  wine  to  be  signs,  or  symbols 
and  pledges  of  that  pai^ticipation.  This  opinion  was  not 
wholly  new :  as  to  its  substance,  though  variously  modified  in 
its  form,  it  had  subsisted  in  the  church  from  the  earliest  times. 
During  the  middle  ages,  its  adherents  were  few ;  its  most  dis- 
tinguished patrons  were  Johannes  Scotus  Erigena  and  Raba- 
nus  Maurus  in  the  ninth  century,  Berengarius,  of  Tours,  in 
the  eleventh,  and  John  Wickliffe  in  the  fourteenth.  About 
the  time  of  the  Reformation,  before  Zwingle  had  publicly 
avowed  his  theory,  or  Carlstadt  had  written  on  the  subject, 
there  were  many  who  began  to  speak,  though  mostly  in  sup- 
pressed tones,  against  the  notion  of  a  bodily  presence  of 
Christ  in  the  sacrament.  The  Papist  cantons,  in  their  remon- 
strance to  the  council  o^  Zurich,  say:  "It  wants  but  little 
that  the  body  of  Christ  in  the  hands  of  the  priest  be  touched, 

*  Zwingli's  Werke,  by  L.  Usteri  and  S.  Voegelin,  vol.  i.  p.  240,  &c. 
v2 


246  HISTORY   OF   THE 

and  called  into  question  in  the  creed  of  some  men."  Upon 
which  Fueslin  remarks:  "It  is  clear  that  this  doctrine  was 
not  the  invention  of  one  man,  but  the  eyes  of  many  were 
opened  at  the  same  time ;  for  which  reason  it  was  so  soon  and 
so  readily  received  by  the  whole  church  of  Zurich,  and  after- 
wards by  others  also."  Among  these  many,  were  Capito, 
Pellicanus,  Carlstadt,  Erasmus,  and,  particularly,  Cornelius 
Hoen,  or  Honnius,  a  learned  jurist  of  Holland,  who  published 
a  Latin  treatise,  in  which  he  stated  and  defended  this  opinion, 
in  1521. 

The  publication  of  this  doctrine,  in  his  treatise  on  true  and 
false  religion,  involved  Zwingle  and  the  Swiss  divines  in  the 
controversy  on  the  Lord's  supper,  which  had  already  begun 
to  rage  in  G-ermany,  between  Luther  and  Carlstadt,  and  of 
which  some  notice  must  now  be  taken. 


CHAPTER   IV. 

THE  ORIGIN  AND  PROGRESS  OF  THE  CONTROVERSY  ON  THE  LORD'S  SUPPER. 

Besides  the  theory  on  the  manner  of  Christ's  presence  in 
the  elements  of  the  Lord's  supper  which  Zwingle  defended, 
two  others  divided  the  Christian  world  at  the  time  of  the 
Reformation. 

The  most  common  of  these,  by  far,  was  that  of  the  church 
of  Rome,  which  was  designated  by  the  term,  Transubstan- 
tiation.  In  the  opinion  of  that  church,  the  bread  and  wine  are 
changed,  in  the  hands  of  the  priest,  by  the  act  of  consecration, 
into  the  real  body  and  blood  of  Christ ;  so  that  they  are  no 
longer  bread  and  wine,  but  flesh  and  blood.  It  is  admitted 
that  the  accidents,  as  the  schoolmen  say,  that  is,  the  proper- 
ties, of  bread  and  wine  remain  ;  but  the  substances  to  which 
these  properties  belong,  it  is  contended,  are  changed,  and  are 


GERMAN   REFORMED    CHURCH.  24^ 

truly  become  the  body  and  the  blood  of  Christ ;  so  that  Christ's 
body  and  blood  are  truly  present  under  the  forms  of  bread 
and  wine :  sub  speciehus  panis  et  vim. 

Several  very  important  conclusions,  that  were  dcducible 
from  these  propositions,  were  actually  drawn  from  them,  and 
made  a  part  of  the  doctrine. 

It  was  held  that,  where  the  body  of  Christ  is,  there  is  also 
his  blood,  and,  inasmuch  as  the  bread  is  changed  into  his  body, 
the  bread  contains  his  blood  also.  The  communicant,  there- 
fore, docs  not  need  to  receive  the  sacrament  in  both  kinds ; 
for,  in  receiving  the  bread,  he  receives  both  the  body  and  the 
blood  of  Christ. 

It  was  further  held,  that  where  the  body  and  blood  of 
Christ  are,  there  is  also  his  soul ;  for  since  his  resurrection 
from  the  dead,  his  body  and  soul  are  inseparably  united. 
The  bread,  therefore,  is  not  become  an  inanimate  body,  but 
the  reanimated,  living  Christ.  No  difficulty  is  found  in  the 
fact,  that  the  bread  still  appears  what  it  was  before ;  that  our 
senses  can  detect  nothing  in  it  but  bread ;  that  it  looks  like 
bread  ;  it  feels  like  bread  ;  it  tastes  like  bread  :  in  eating  it, 
there  is  no  perception  of  flesh  or  blood,  and  no  sign  of  life, 
and  sense,  and  power  of  motion :  all  this,  it  is  said,  is  mere 
illusion,  designed  to  veil  the  glorious  truth  in  mystery,  and  to 
save  the  faithful  from  its  overpowering  effect,  were  it  evident 
to  their  senses :  and  nothing  is  more  certain  than  the  fact, 
that,  under  the  mean  form  of  bread,  they  are  really  eating  the 
living  and  glorified  Redeemer,  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ ! 

It  was  still  farther  held,  that,  where  Christ's  human  nature 
is,  there  is  also  his  divine  nature ;  for  the  two  natures  con- 
stitute one  person,  and  are,  therefore,  inseparable :  and,  as 
the  bread  is  converted  into  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  it  is  become 
the  God-Man,  the  Son  of  God,  who  sits  at  the  right  hand  of 
the  Majesty  on  high,  and  is  adored  by  the  spirits  of  heaven; 
and  when  the  faithful  receive  and  eat  the  host  in  the  sacra- 
ment, they  receive  and  eat  the  Son  of  God,  in  his  divine  and 
human  nature,  while  he  administers  the  government  of  the 
universe,  and  receives  the  worship  of  angels  I 


248  HISTORY  OF  the 

There  was  yet  another  consequence  that  followed  from  the 
last,  viz. :  If  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  be  present  under  the  form 
of  bread,  he  ought  to  be  worshipped  under  that  form  by  the 
faithful  on  earth,  as  he  is  worshipped  upon  his  throne  by  the 
spirits  in  heaven :  and,  accordingly,  the  consecrated  bread 
was  elevated  by  the  priest  at  the  altar,  to  be  devoutly  looked 
upon  and  adored  by  the  people ;  and  when  the  faithful  beheld 
it,  they  fell  down  and  worshipped ! 

Such  was  the  edifice  that  had  been  raised  upon  the  principle 
of  transubstantiation  ;  and,  conceding  that  principle,  all  this 
train  of  monstrous  absurdities  followed  naturally  and  irre- 
sistibly. It  is  strange  that  even  the  ignorant  populace,  prone 
as  they  are  to  superstition,  and  strong  as  is  their  love  of  the 
marvellous,  did  not  see  the  absurdity  of  these  consequences, 
and  were  not  led  by  them  to  detect  the  falsehood  of  the  doc- 
trine upon  which  they  were  built.  But  the  people  were  for- 
bidden to  examine,  or  to  inquire,  where  the  church  had  spoken 
in  her  infallibility :  the  doctrine  was  a  holy  mystery,  she  said, 
about  which  the  church  could  not  err ;  and  the  part  of  the 
laity  was  not  to  inquire,  but  to  believe  and  adore !  The  im- 
posture was  carried  so  far  that  a  festival  was  appointed  in 
honor  of  the  mystery,*  on  which  the  consecrated  host  was 
borne  in  solemn  procession,  with  the  most  imposing  religious 
pomp,  and  all  who  saw  it  were  required  to  bow  before  it,  as 
before  the  Son  of  God,  while  it  passed  ! 

The  other  opinion  was  that  which  was  designated  by  the 
terms  Impanation  and  Oo7isuhstantiation.  The  former  of 
these  denoted  an  inclusion  of  the  body  of  Christ  in  the  bread, 
from  the  Latin  words  in,  in,  and  j^^nis,  bread.  The  latter 
signified  a  union  of  two  substances  in  one  body;  namely,  of 
Christ's  body  and  the  bread;  from  con,  together,  and  sub- 
stantia, substance.  According  to  this  opinion,  the  bread  and 
wine  in  the  sacrament  remain  unchanged,  both  in  their  sub- 
stance and  in  their  properties  ;  but,  by  the  divine  energy  of 
the   words.  This  is  mi/  body,— This  is  my  blood,  in  the  act 

*  The  festival  of  Corpus  Cliristi,  on  Thursday  after  Trinity-Sunday. 


GERMAN   REFORMED   CHURCH.  249 

of  consecration,  the  material  body  of  Christ  becomes  really 
united  with  the  bread,  and  the  material  blood  of  Christ 
becomes  really  united  with  the  wine ;  and'  both  the  body  and 
the  blood  of  Christ  are  really  and  literally  received  and  eaten 
or  drunk  by  every  communicant,  whether  he  be  a  believer  or 
an  unbeliever ;  all  the  difference  being  that  the  one  is  bene- 
fited by  his  eating,  and  the  other  is  injured. 

This  was  the  opinion  which  Luther  adopted.  He  main- 
tained that  the  words  of  institution,  Tliis  is  my  hodi/^  ifec, 
must  be  taken  in  the  strictly  literal  signification,  and  neither 
do  nor  can  admit  a  tropical  or  figurative  meaning  ;  and  every 
argument  to  show  that  their  signification  is  tropical,  that 
their  true  meaning  is,  TJiis  signifies  my  hody,  or.  Tins  repre- 
sents my  body,  he  rejected,  as  an  impious  attempt  to  force  the 
sacred  text,  to  be  wiser  than  Christ  himself,  and  to  sit  in 
judgment  upon  his  words.  He  would  not  admit  that  the 
words  proved  what  the  Papists  taught,  that  the  bread  itself  is 
the  body  of  Christ,  but  maintained  that  they  do  prove  that 
the  bread  contains,  or  is  united  with,  the  Lord's  body.  He 
thus  conceded,  perhaps  unconsciously,  that  there  is  a  trope, 
notwithstanding :  for  in  their  strictly  literal  signification,  they 
would  prove  the  Papist  doctrine  of  transubstantiation,  and 
not  the  Lutheran,  of  consubstantiation  :  and  if  they  be  taken 
in  Luther's  sense,  and  not  in  that  of  the  Papists,  they  are  not 
taken  literally,  but  as  a  metonymy,  by  which  the  name  of  the 
thing  contained  is  put  for  that  of  the  container.  To  maintain 
his  position,  therefore,  cost  him  infinite  pains.  In  defending 
it  against  the  Papists,  he  fell  unavoidably  into  the  power  of 
the  Tropists ;  and  in  resisting  the  Tropists  he  fell  back  as 
unavoidably  into  the  power  of  the  Papists.  To  guard  his 
doctrine  against  the  objections  that  were  urged  against  it  on  fc- 
philosophical  grounds,  from  the  nature  of  bodies  and  the 
evidence  of  the  senses,  he  rejected  the  idea  of  a  local  presence 
and  a  physical  union,  and  called  the  presence  definitive  and  the 
union  sacramental.  By  a  definitive  presence,  he  meant  a  pre- 
sence like  that  of  the  Deity,  which  we  cannot  comprehend ; 
and  to  prove  the  possibility  of  the  presence  of  Christ's  body 

32 


250  HISTORY   OF   THE 

everywhere,  witliout  being  locally  any^vhere,  he  adopted  the 
position,  that,  by  virtue  of  the  personal  union  of  the  divine 
and  the  human  nature  of  Christ,  the  attributes  of  his  divinity 
were  communicated  to  his  humanity,  and  his  body  is  therefore 
omnipresent  in  the  same  manner  in  which  his  divine  nature  is 
omnipresent.  A  sacramental  union,  he  affirmed,  differed  from 
every  other  kind  of  union  of  two  substances  :  it  was  inexpli- 
cable and  incomprehensible,  and  belonged  to  the  mysteries 
which  are  purely  objects  of  faith.  The  vagueness  of  this 
term  sheltered  him  from  all  the  assaults  of  his  opponents ; 
for,  if  they  proved  that  any  specified  union  could  not  subsist, 
he  might  simply  reply,  that  this  was  not  a  sacramental  union. 
But  he  would  not  allow  the  validity  of  any  reasoning  on  the 
subject,  as  long  as  he  had  the  words  of  institution.  This  is 
my  hodij,  &c. :  neither  would  he  admit  the  force  of  any  proof, 
nor  the  pertinency  of  any  authorities,  to  show  that  these 
words  were  a  trope,  and  not  to  be  literally  understood.  That 
his  theory  was  at  variance  with  the  dictates  of  reason,  he 
freely  admitted ;  but  he  disallowed  the  authority  of  reason  in 
the  case,  and  insisted  upon  the  duty  of  believing  where  the 
word  of  God  was  clear,  as  he  thought  it  was  in  this  instance, 
whatever  reason  might  say  to  the  contrary.  In  the  heat  of 
controversy,  he  sometimes  went  so  near  the  Papist  boundary, 
that  it  was  doubtful  on  which  side  of  it  he  stood.  A  single 
passage  must  suffice  here :  "  Therefore  the  fanatics  unjustly 
blame  pope  Nicholas  for  compelling  Berengarius  to  make  such 
a  confession  as  this :  Tliat  he  compresses  and  grinds  ivith 
his  teeth  the  true  hody  of  Christ.  Would  to  God  that  all 
popes  had  acted  in  every  thing  as  Christianlike  as  this  pope 
acted  with  Berengarius  in  that  confession :  for  it  was  doubt- 
less his  meaning,  that  whoever  eats  and  bites  this  bread,  eats 
and  bites  that  which  is  the  right,  true  body  of  Christ,  and  not 
mere  bread,  as  Wickliffe  teaches  ;  for  this  bread  is  truly  the 
body  of  Christ,  even  as  the  dove  is  the  Holy  Ghost,"  &c.* 

*  Bekenntniss  vom  Abendmahl,  1528.     In  Luther's  Werke,  Leipzig  edit, 
vol.  xix.  p.  49G. 


GERMAN  REFORMED  CHURCH.  251 

Before  Zwingle  published  his  treatise  "  On  True  and  False 
Religion,"  Luther's  theory  was  publicly  attacked  in  Germany 
by  his  early  friend  and  co-worker,  Andrew  Bodenstein,  sur- 
named  Carlstadt  from  the  place  of  his  nativity,  Carlstadt  in 
Franconia.  He  was  born  in  1483,  studied  at  Rome,  and 
became  professor  of  philosophy  and  the  liberal  arts  in  the 
university  of  Wittenberg,  in  1504,  at  the  early  age  of  twenty- 
one  years.  In  1510,  he  obtained  the  archdeaconship  of  the 
cathedral  in  that  city,  and  the  professorship  of  theology  in 
the  university ;  and,  two  years  afterwards,  he  conferred  on 
Luther  the  title  of  doctor  of  divinity.  An  intimate  friendship 
subsisted  between  him  and  Luther  from  that  time.  When 
Luther  began  his  reformation,  Carlstadt  was  one  of  the  first 
who  espoused  his  cause,  and  the  pope's  bull  of  excommunica- 
tion against  the  reformer,  in  1520,  only  served  to  kindle  in 
him  a  higher  enthusiasm  in  his  behalf.  Among  all  Luther's 
colleagues  in  the  university,  none  was  more  prompt  and  open- 
hearted  than  Carlstadt ;  but  he,  unfortunately,  possessed  an 
ardency  of  temper  that  easily  passed  into  fanaticism  under 
strong  excitement,  and  divested  him  of  that  calmness  and 
self-possession  which  are  essential  to  true  greatness.  In  1521, 
he  was  called  by  the  king  o^ Denmark,  Christian  II.,  to  aid  in 
effecting  the  reformation  of  his  capital ;  but  the  king  being  per- 
suaded by  his  bishops  to  change  his  purpose,  Carlstadt  returned, 
after  a  short  stay,  to  Wittenberg.  While  Luther  was  still  in 
his  retirement  in  the  castle  of  Warthurg,  Carlstadt's  impatience 
impelled  him  to  undertake  the  abolition  of  Popish  abuses  in 
the  forms  of  worship,  and  to  adapt  the  external  part  of  reli- 
gion to  the  purer  creed  which  Avas  now  held.  A  movement 
had  already  begun  with  the  Augustinian  monks  of  the  city, 
who,  in  the  early  part  of  October,  1521,  discontinued  their 
private  masses  ;  and,  near  the  close  of  the  year,  their  brethren 
in  Misnia  and  Thuringia,  in  a  chapter  held  in  Wittenberg, 
followed  their  example,  and  adopted  also  other  reforms.* 
The  monks,  however,  were  not  unanimous ;  the  prior,  Conrad 

*  Seckendorf,  sec.  cxv.  p.  442. 


252  HISTORY   OF   THE 

Held,  and  a  few  of  the  order,  insisted  on  preserving  the  old 
order  of  things,  and  were  supported  by  the  cathedral  chapter 
and  a  j)art  of  the  citizens,  while  the  convent  preacher,  Gabriel 
Dydimus,  inveighed  vehemently  against  the  worship  of  the 
sacrament  and  the  private  masses,  and  was  sustained  by  the 
students  of  the  university  and  another  part  of  the  citizens. 
Amidst  the  confusion  that  arose,  the  elector  referred  the  mat- 
ter to  a  committee  of  the  university,  who,  after  conferring 
with  the  monks,  reported  favorably  of  them  to  the  elector, 
and  recommended  the  abolition  of  private  masses  throughout 
his  dominions.  Against  this  recommendation  the  chapter 
remonstrated  in  strong  terms ;  and,  after  some  farther  nego- 
tiation with  the  professors,  the  government  forbade  any  far- 
ther innovations,  but  left  the  monks  unmolested.  By  the 
advice  of  the  elector's  confessor,  a  Franciscan  monk,  and  of 
George  Spalatine,  the  learned  were  invited,  at  the  same  time, 
to  publish  expositions  of  the  abuses  of  the  mass,  both  in  Ger- 
man and  in  Latin,  for  general  information. 

Carlstadt,  who  was  one  of  the  committee,  and  whose  fiery 
zeal  could  ill  brook  delay,  was  dissatisfied  with  these  cautious 
measures,  and,  believing  that  he  ought  to  be  governed  only 
hj  his  convictions  of  the  truth,  resolved  to  carry  into  imme- 
diate effect  what  he  held  to  be  the  requirement  of  the  word  of 
God.  At  the  Christmas  festival,  therefore,  he  set  aside  the 
mass,  with  its  Latin  form  and  superstitious  ceremonies,  admi- 
nistered the  Lord's  supper  in  both  kinds,  suffered  the  com- 
municants to  take  the  host  into  their  own  hands,  admitted 
them  to  the  altar,  whether  they  came  fasting  or  not,  and 
received  them  w^ithout  a  previous  confession.  The  images  of 
the  saints  were  thrown  out  of  the  churches,  the  altars  were 
removed,  and  the  mode  of  worship  received  a  form,  says  Plank, 
as  unlike  to  what  it  had  been  as  it  could  be  made.*  These 
bold  innovations,  made,  in  part,  in  a  tumultuous  manner,  by 
a  fanatical  body  of  students  and  citizens,  under  his  direction, 
raised  a  terrible  outcry  from  those  who  still  regarded  the 

*  Plank,  Gcsch.  der  Entsteliung,  &c.,  vol.  ii.  p.  34. 


GERMAN   REFORMED    CnURCH.  253 

popish  ceremonies  with  religious  awe.     "As  it  seemed,"  says 
Seckendorf,  "  as  if  every  thing  were  going  to  disorder,  and 
the  elector  was  in  doubt  Avhat  to  do,  a  compromise  was  effected 
by  the  intervention  of  several  counsellors,  especially  of  the 
burgomaster  and  professor.  Dr.  Baiers,  between  the  university 
and  the  council,  in  the  beginning  of  the  year  1522,  of  which 
Dr.  Baiers  gives  the  following  account  to  the  electoral  coun- 
sellor, Haubold  Einsiedein,  on  the  25th  of  January :  "  In  the 
city  church,  public  worship  is  ordained  thus  :  in  the  commence- 
ment, the  Qloria  is  sung,  which  is  followed  by  the  epistle,  the 
gospel,  and  the  Sanctus,  &c.    A  sermon  is  then  preached,  and 
afterwards  the  mass  is  celebrated  in  a  loud  voice,  from  the 
words  of  Christ's  institution,  and  the  people  are  exhorted  that 
those  who  repent  of  their  sins,  and  desire  the  grace  of  God, 
come  to  the  holy  supper.     During  the  administration,  the 
Agnus  Dei  and  the  Benedicamus  are  sung.     The  canon  is 
wholly  omitted."*     The  compromise  proposed,  also,  that  the 
elevation  of  the  host,  which,  in  the  papacy,  was  the  act  of 
offering  up  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  as  a  sacrifice  to  God,  should 
be  omitted ;  but  this  part  was  stricken  out  by  Einsiedein,  and 
the  ceremony  was  retained,  on  the  plea  that  it  served  the  pur- 
pose of  edification.     The  eating  of  flesh  on  fast-days  was 
interdicted  to  avoid  offences,  and  the  images  were  reinstated. 
The  elector  disapproved  the  length  to  which  his  council  had 
gone,  and,  though  he  did  not  forbid  the  adoption  of  the  com- 
promise, he  withheld  his  sanction,  and  forbade  his  counsellors 
to  impute  their  measure  to  him.     He  dreaded  the  emperor's 
displeasure,  and  was  afraid  of  giving  cause  of  offence  to  the 
bishops,  who  were  then  performing  their  episcopal  visitations 
in  his  dominions.     Melancthon,  also,  would  have  preferred, 
from  prudential  motives,  that  no  changes  had  then  been  in- 
troduced.f 

In  this  unsettled  state  of  things,  the  new  prophets  came 
from  Zwickau  to  Wittenberg.  In  the  former  place,  their  ex- 
cesses, and  the  tumults  they  had  raised,  had  caused  the  arrest 


*  Seckendorf,  sec.  cxvi.  col.  448.  t  Ibid. 

W  ' 


254  HISTORY  OP  THE 

of  some  of  the  offending  leaders,  and  three  of  their  number, 
Stork,  Stubner,  and  another,  -who  is  not  named,  came,  in 
consequence,  to  Wittenberg,  according  to  Plank,  to  obtain  the 
sanction  of  the  university  and  a  redress  of  their  grievance.* 
They  presented  themselves  before  the  professors  as  messengers 
of  God  to  men,  inspired  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  called  to  the 
ministry  by  a  miraculous  voice  from  heaven.  Their  high  pre- 
tensions, their  confident  boldness,  and  their  irrepressible  ardor 
quickly  spread  the  contagion  of  their  fanaticism  among  a 
people  already  prepared  for  the  infection.  Carlstadt  fell  into 
their  plans ;  a  new  impulse  was  given  to  his  turbulent  zeal. 
The  enthusiasm  of  the  multitude  was  aroused  anew,  and  rose 
to  a  higher  state  of  excitement  than  before.  All  who  would 
not  unite  with  them  were  denounced  as  wicked  and  enemies 
of  God ;  those,  and  only  those,  were  saints,  and  worthy  of  the 
kingdom  of  heaven,  who  demolished  images,  who  ate  flesh  on 
fast-days,  who  communed  in  both  kinds,  and  took  the  host 
into  their  hands,  and  omitted  confession  and  fasting  as  a  pre- 
paration for  the  sacrament,  and  did  things  of  that  sort. 
Their  opponents  were  enraged,  disputes  rose  upon  disputes, 
and  the  city  was  thrown  into  violent  commotion.  Melancthon 
wished  for  Luther,  to  whom  the  fanatics  appealed,  and  had 
from  the  first  proposed  to  the  elector  a  conference  between 
the  prophets  and  the  great  reformer.  The  wise  Frederick 
remained  calm  amidst  all  this  turmoil.  He  would  not  expose 
Luther  to  the  danger  of  discovering  his  retreat,  and  advised 
him  to  refrain  from  all  public  discussion  with  the  pretenders, 
lest  the  evil  might  be  rendered  worse.  But  when  the  reformer 
was  apprized  of  this  state  of  things,  and  saw  the  danger  to 
which  the  fruit  of  all  his  toils  was  exposed  in  the  very  birth- 
place of  his  reformation,  he  determined  at  once  to  return  to 
the  field  of  his  labors,  regardless  of  the  danger  that  threatened 
him  from  the  pope's  bull  of  excommunication,  and  from  the 
emperor's  decree  of  outlawry.  On  his  way,  he  addressed  a 
letter  to  his  sovereign,  who  had  forbidden  his  reappearance 

*  Plank,  vol.  ii.  p.  46.     Seckcndorf,  sec.  cxvii.  col.  451. 


GERMAN   REFORMED    CHURCH.  255 

from  a  concern  for  his  safety,  -which  is  a  rare  example  of  trust 
in  God,  and  of  fearless  devotion  to  what  he  esteemed  a  right- 
eous and  holy  cause.  Never  does  Luther  appear  so  truly  great 
as  in  this  instance,  except  ■when  he  stood  before  the  diet  of 
Worms,  and  faced  alone,  yet  undaunted,  the  assembled  princes 
and  mitred  heads  of  the  Papist  world.  In  Wittenberg,  he  was 
received  with  the  liveliest  demonstrations  of  joy.  He  imme- 
diately resumed  his  public  ministry,  and  addressed  the  agitated 
multitude  from  the  pulpit.  During  eight  successive  days  he 
preached  as  many  sermons,  on  the  topics  which  had  given  so 
much  disturbance  to  the  public  mind ;  and  such  was  the  wise 
adaptation  of  his  arguments  to  the  exigencies  of  the  case,  and 
such  the  power  with  which  the  Spirit  of  God  enabled  him  to 
speak,  that  every  mind  was  convinced,  and  every  heart  sub- 
dued :  the  storm  was  hushed,  the  waves  subsided,  the  troubled 
sea  grew  calm.  It  was  the  Saviour's  work ;  and  the  noisy 
prophets,  foiled  by  his  presence,  Avithdrew  in  anger  from  the 
city. 

In  all  these  transactions,  Luther  treated  Carlstadt  with  the 
utmost  tenderness  and  forbearance,  carefully  abstaining  from 
offensive  personalities,  and  from  allusions  by  which  the  feel- 
ings of  his  early  friend  might  be  unnecessarily  wounded.  He 
had  the  more  reason  for  this  tenderness  because,  in  his  mea- 
sures of  reform,  Carlstadt  and  his  friends  were  fully  persuaded 
of  Luther's  entire  approbation,  inasmuch  as  the  reformer  had 
himself  inveighed  with  great  force  against  the  abuses  which 
they  were  attempting  to  remove,  and  had  written  a  letter  to 
the  monks  of  his  order,  thanking  them  for  what  they  had  done 
in  abolishing  private  masses.*  It  was  not  the  removal  of  the 
abuses  that  Luther  condemned,  but  the  time  and  the  manner 
of  doing  it,  and  the  principle  upon  which  it  was  based,  and  by 
which  it  was  made  essential  to  Christian  piety,  contrary  to 
his  principle  of  Christian  liberty  in  such  things.  Carlstadt's 
intentions  were  good,  though  his  zeal  was  without  knowledge, 

*  Plank,  Gesch.  d.  Entstehung,  &c.,  vol.  ii.  p.  37. 


256  HISTORY   OF   THE 

and  the  uprightness  of  his  heart  made  him  worthy   of   the 
forbearance  which  he  received.* 

It  was  natural,  however,  that  Carlstadt  should  feel  deeply 
mortified  and  humbled  by  such  a  defeat,  and  by  the  ease  with 
which  his  junior  in  ofiice  had  triumphed  over  him.  He 
returned  to  his  labors  in  pain,  and  wrote  a  work  against  Lu- 
ther, which  the  authorities  suppressed  ;  and,  being  resolved  to 
prevent  a  public  controversy,  the  government  forbade  him 
either  to  preach  or  to  publish  any  writing  of  his  until  a  recon- 
ciliation took  place  with  Luther.f  In  1524,  he  left  Wittenberg, 
without  the  elector's  knowledge,  and  retired  to  Orlamiinda, 
a  town  of  TJmringia,  situated  on  the  Saal.  Here  he  caused 
himself  to  be  elected  pastor  by  the  people ;  and  feeling  now 
free  from  restraint,  he  introduced  the  reforms  he  had  unsuc- 
cessfully attempted  in  Wittenberg.  He  renounced  the  title 
of  doctor,  clad  himself  as  a  common  peasant,  and  assumed  the 
name  of  "  brother  Andrew."  Seckendorf,  from  whom  these 
particulars  are  taken,  adds,  that  he  made  pretensions  also  to 
divine  inspiration  ;  but  of  this  we  are  disposed  to  doubt.  It 
is  certain,  however,  that  he  impugned  Luther's  doctrine  on 
the  Lord's  supper.  Both  the  chapter  and  the  university 
required  him  to  return  to  his  duties  in  Wittenberg,  and  the 
elector  seconded  their  requisition  by  his  positive  commands  ; 
he,  nevertheless,  declined  obedience,  and  remained  in  his  new 
situation.  In  Orlamiinda,  the  people  went  with  him,  it  seems, 
unanimously,  and  their  example  moved  those  of  the  neighbor- 
ing towns  and  parishes  to  adopt  the  same  mode  of  reformation. 
The  efforts  of  the  court  to  repress  the  enthusiasm  of  the 
people  were  met  with  the  plea,  "  We  must  obey  God  rather 
than  men."  The  contagion  spread  daily,  and,  as  a  last  resort, 
Luther  was  sent,  in  the  hope  that  his  personal  presence  and 
preaching  would  effect  here,  also,  what  they  had  so  quickly 
wrought  in  Wittenberg. 

In  pursuance  of  the  elector's  command,  Luther  preached  at 
Jena,  near  to  Orlamiinda,  and  directed  his  powerful  invective 


*  Seckendorf,  sec.  cxxi.  col.  4G4,  &c.  f  Ibid.  sec.  clii.  col.  625. 


GERMAN   REFORMED   CHURCH.  257 

against  the  fanatics,  whom  he  described  as  image-breakers, 
destroyers  of  the  sacraments,  movers  of  sedition,  and  mur- 
derers; he  identified  their  spirit  "with  that  of  Munzer,  and 
charged  it  with  the  same  disastrous  tendencies.  Carlstadt, 
who  was  present,  was  not  named,  but  he  was  so  delineated 
that  his  portrait  was  easily  recognised.  He  accordingly 
appropriated  Luther's  remarks  to  himself,  and,  feeling  himself 
injured,  waited  upon  him  at  an  inn  to  demand  explanations. 
He  was  uncivilly  received :  a  discussion  arose,  in  the  warmth 
of  which,  Luther  challenged  him  to  maintain  his  cause  in 
writing,  if  he  chose ;  and  when  Carlstadt  complained  that 
Luther  had  caused  his  writings  to  be  suppressed  and  silence 
to  be  imposed  on  him,  the  former  took  a  guilder  from  his 
pocket  and  gave  it  to  Carlstadt,  as  a  pledge  of  his  permission 
to  the  latter  to  do  his  worst  in  that  way.  Carlstadt  took  the 
pledge,  showed  it  to  the  company,  appealed  to  them  as  wit- 
nesses of  the  fact  that  he  had  Luther's  permission  to  write 
against  him,  and  warned  the  latter  of  his  solemn  determina- 
tion to  do  so.* 

At  Orlamiinda,  Luther  was  treated  so  coarsely  by  the  rude 
and  simple  inhabitants,  whom  he  had  summoned  to  a  con- 
ference, that  he  refused  to  preach  to  them,  though  pressingly 
importuned  for  it  by  them,  and  left  them  abruptly,  amidst 
their  scornful  reproaches.  Both  Carlstadt  and  his  parishion- 
ers preferred  complaints  against  him,  in  writing,  to  the 
elector ;  the  latter,  also,  transmitted  a  vindication  of  their 
proceedings,  and  of  the  act  of  choosing  their  pastor  contrary 
to  the  claims  of  the  chapter,  to  whom  the  right  of  the  patron- 
age had  belonged.  Upon  this,  the  elector,  wearied  with  the 
refractoriness  of  the  archdeacon  and  professor,  irritated  by 
the  insubordination  of  the  parishioners,  and  resolved  to  put 
down  what  he  esteemed  mere  fanatical  excitement,  banished 
Carlstadt  from  his  dominions.    No  intercessions  nor  entreaties 


*  Martin  Reiahard's  Bericht  der  Handlung  zwischen  Luther  und  Carl- 
stadt, &c.,  in  Luther's  Wcrkc,  vol.  xix.  p.  148,  Leipzifj.  Ausg.  Wider  die 
Himmlischen  Propheten,  tlieil  i.  ibid. 

w2  33 


258  HISTORY   OF  THE 

of  his  friends  could  obtain  a  mitigation  of  this  hard  sentence ; 
and  the  unhappy  man  now  became  a  homeless  and  destitute 
wanderer, '  struggling  with  want,  and  in  deep  distress.  He 
charged  Luther  with  having  instigated  the  elector  to  banish 
him  from  his  country  and  his  living.  Luther  denied  the 
charge,  but  acknowledged  that  he  approved  the  act,  and 
rejoiced  in  it,  and  maintained  that,  if  even  justice  had  been 
meted  out  to  him,  Carlstadt  would  have  expiated  his  con- 
temptuous treatment  of  his  sovereign  by  the  loss  of  his  head.* 
The  separation  of  these  two  eminent  men,  once  so  kindly 
affectionate  toward  one  another,  was  thus  characterized  by 
the  utmost  exasperation  and  bitterness.  To  this  cause  must 
be  imputed  the  acrimony  and  bitter  contumely  that  were  sub- 
sequently infused  into  their  controversial  writings  on  the 
chief  points  of  difference  between  them. 

Carlstadt  was  charged  with  participating  in  Munzer's  se- 
ditious projects,  and  encouraging  the  revolt  of  the  peasantry. 
We,  however,  find  no  satisfactory  evidence  of  so  heavy  an 
accusation.  Luther  himself  acknowledged  his  innocence  of 
the  crime,  in  the  conference  at  Jena,  being  convinced,  he 
said,  by  a  letter  of  his  to  Munzer,  that  he  condemned  sedition 
and  rebellion;  and  in  his  work,  "Against  the  Heavenly  Pro- 
phets," Luther  only  maintained  that  the  tendency  of  Carl- 
stadt's  spirit  was  to  produce  such  results. 

Seckendorf  reproaches  this  unfortunate  man  with  vainly 
boasting,  that,  since  the  days  of  the  apostles,  no  one  had 
written  or  taught  on  the  Lord's  supper  as  he  had  done.f 
This,  however,  is  a  misapprehension  (shall  we  say,  perversion  ?) 
of  his  words  in  the  same  conference.  In  stating  the  reason 
why  he  appropriated  Luther's  remarks  to  himself,  he  said, 
that,  since  the  time  of  the  apostles,  no  one  had  written  or 
taught  on  the  Lord's  supper  in  the  same  manner  and  meaning, 
and  with  the  same  arguments,  as  he  had  taught.     This  was 


*  Wider  die  Himmlischen  Propheten,  theil  i. 

f  Seckendorf,   sec.  cliii.  col.  627.     Plank  Gesch.  d.  Entstehung,  vol.  ii. 
p.  209. 


GERMAN   REFORMED    CHURCH.  259 

•  ■ 

the  statement  of  a  reason  Avliy  ho  considered  those  remarks 
applicable  to  none  but  him  ;  but  not  an  idle  boast  of  his  own 
superior  knowledge  and  genius. 

In  the  course  of  his  wanderings,  the  sad  and  afflicted  exile 
came  to  Strashurg  and  to  Basel,  and,  in  the  latter  place,  pub- 
lished his  work  against  Luther,  entitled,  Von  dem  Wider- 
christUchen  Branch  des  Ilerrn  Brads  und  Kelchs,  ^c, — "Of 
the  antichristian  Use  of  the  Lord's  Bread  and  Cup."  In  this 
work,  he  endeavors  to  show  that,  as  faith  in  Christ  and  his 
death  is  sufficient  for  the  soul,  there  is  no  need  to  look  for 
farther  benefit  from  an  oral  participation  of  his  material  bodj, 
and  to  expect  it  is  much  more  a  disparagement  of  the  fruit 
of  his  death  than  a  commendation  of  it.  His  own  interpreta- 
tion of  the  words  of  institution  is  given  in  several  of  his  pro- 
ductions, but  especially  in  his  treatise  entitled,  Auslec/ung, 
&c., — "Exposition  of  the  Words,  This  is  my  body."  In  this 
work  he  maintains  that  the  pronoun  this  refers  not  to  the 
bread  which  the  Lord  gave  to  his  disciples,  but  to  his  body ; 
and  in  uttering  the  words.  This  is  my  hody,  he  pointed  to  his 
body,  and  meant  to  be  understood  as  saying.  Take  and  eat 
this  bread  in  remembrance  of  me :  This  body  is  my  body, 
which  is  about  to  be  broken  for  you,  &c.  Such  a  criticism  on 
the  text  was  easily  exploded,  and  satisfied  no  one  ;  but  the 
doctrine  itself,  that  all  our  participation  of  Christ  in  the  sa- 
crament is  a  spiritual  participation  by  faith,  and  that  there  is 
no  real,  corporeal  presence  of  his  body  and  blood  in  the 
elements,  was  so  commended  by  its  simplicity,  fitness,  and 
beauty,  that  it  found  many  favorers,  and  men  of  high  con- 
sideration began  to  speak  openly  Avith  indifference  of  a  cor- 
poreal presence. 

Among  these,  were  Wolfgang  Fabricius  Capito  and  Martin 
Bucer,  two  divines  of  Strasburg,  both  eminent  men,  who  had 
done  much  for  the  reformation  of  the  church  in  their  region. 
The  former  published,  in  1524,  his  "Judgment  concerning 
the  Breach  between  Martin  Luther  and  Andrew  Carlstadt." 
In  this  work,  he  says  :  "  Between  the  two  doctors,  there  is  no 
difi"erence  respecting  the  essentials  of  Christianity.      They 


260  HISTOKY   OF   THE 

differ  only  on  the  question,  "VMiether  the  pronoun  this  should 
be  referred  to  the  bread  or  to  the  body  of  Christ?  It  is, 
however,  enough,  if  we  exercise  faith  and  love.  The  Christian 
is  internal  and  invisible,  and  is  not  bound  by  any  external 
thing  or  sign.  Foolish  questions  should  be  avoided :  we 
should  only  nourish  our  faith  with  the  remembrance  of 
Christ's  body  and  blood,  and  let  the  rest  go."  Bucer  ex- 
plained himself  more  fully  in  a  larger  work,  entitled,  "Ground 
and  Reason  of  the  Changes  in  the  Lord's  Supper,  called  the 
Mass,  which  have  been  introduced  in  Strasburg."  In  this 
work,  that  from  its  title  appears  as  an  apology  for  innovations 
in  the  mode  of  celebrating  the  sacrament  which  had  already 
been  made  in  Strashurg,  the  author  says:  "Christ  has  said, 
It  is  the  Spirit  that  quickeneth:  the  flesh  profiteth  nothing. 
Why,  then,  do  we  contend  about  the  fleshly  presence  ?  Let 
the  words  of  institution  be  true,  and  let  us  reflect  that  the 
Lord  will  that  we  do  this  in  remembrance  of  him.  If  this  be 
done,  and  done  in  faith,  all  that  we  do  of  a  bodily  kind  is  that 
we  eat  the  bread  and  drink  the  cup,  and  we  pass  immediately 
to  that  which  is  spiritual,  the  remembrance  of  Christ's  death. 

The  words,  This  cup  is  the  New  Testament,  must 

be  understood  as  meaning,  This  cup  is  a  sign  or  figure  of  the 
New  Testament,  which,  consequently,  is  spiritual.  Why,  then, 
when  he  says,  This  is  my  hocly,  and,  in  Matthew  and  Mark, 
This  is  my  Mood,  will  we  not  also  admit  that  this  bread  and 
this  cup  are  a  figure,  memorial,  or  sign  of  the  true  body  and 
blood  of  Christ ;  which,  therefore,  are  not  intended  to  be  with 
us  in  a  corporeal  manner?"  This  was  good  common  sense; 
and  it  is  much  to  be  lamented  that  Luther,  who  was  so  much 
above  these  reformers  in  other  respects,  fell  so  much  below 
them  here. 

Carlstadt's  doctrine  was  new  to  the  great  mass  of  the 
people.  His  work,  therefore,  as  well  as  his  breach  with  Lu- 
ther, created  a  great  sensation.  Parties  soon  began  to  form 
among  the  friends  of  the  Reformation,  disputes  arose,  and 
passions  were  called  into  exercise  that  threatened  to  tear  the 
church  into  pieces  while  it  was  yet  in  its  tenderest  infancy. 


GERMAN   REFORMED   CHURCH.  261 

The  Papist  party  rejoiced  in  this  division,  and  turned  it  as  a 
deadly  weapon  against  the  reformers,  who  were  thus  exposing 
their  very  citadel,  the  principle  of  the  sufficiency  and  the 
exclusiveness  of  the  Bible  as  the  rule  of  faith,  to  the  most 
dangerous  assaults.  The  divines  of  Strashurg,  anxious  for 
the  safety  of  the  infant  church,  procured  from  the  magistrates 
an  order  to  prevent  the  farther  dissemination  of  Carlstadt's 
writings ;  endeavored,  both  by  their  oral  instructions  and  the 
publications  already  noticed,  to  quiet  the  public  mind ;  sent  to 
Luther  a  copy  of  Carlstadt's  production,  together  with  an 
account  of  its  effect  in  that  region,  and  of  their  own  measures 
in  relation  to  it,  and  sought  to  persuade  him  to  refrain,  in  his 
answer,  from  the  harshness  and  vehemence  in  which  he  ordi- 
narily indulged.* 

In  their  letter  to  Luther,  the  Strasburg  divines  say :  "  "VYe 
adhere  to  the  connection  of  the  whole  discourse.  This  is  my 
hody,  kc,  and  believe  with  you,  that  the  bread  is  the  body 
of  Christ,  and  the  wine  his  blood ;  although  we  chiefly  exhort 
the  people  to  the  remembrance  of  Christ's  death,  and  repre- 
sent to  them  that  the  right  use  of  the  Lord's  supper  consists 
in  this  alone,  inasmuch  as  the  rest  contributes  nothing  to  salva- 
tion ;  for  the  flesh  would  profit  nothing,  though  the  whole 
Christ  were  bodily  present  as  he  once  hung  upon  the  cross. 
This  only  we  confess,  that,  though  Carlstadt  has  not  yet  per- 
suaded us  to  adopt  his  opinion,  yet,  as  he  has  disjoined  the 
connection,  on  which  we  wholly  depended,  he  has  somewhat 
perplexed  us ;  for,  although  he  intermingles  his  conceits,  he, 
nevertheless,  produces  many  things  which  appear  probable  to 
others  as  well  as  to  us,  though  not  entirely  credible."  They 
then  recite  those  of  Carlstadt's  arguments  which  had  most 
impressed  them,  and  entreat  Luther  to  divest  them  of  their 
doubts  by  his  instructions.  "Hitherto,"  they  say,  "we  have 
answered  those  who  have  asked  us  for  information.  Bread  and 
wine  are  external  things,  and,  though  the  bread  be  the  body 
of  Christ,  and  the  wine  his  blood,  it  will,  nevertheless,  do  us 

*  Plank,  Gesch.  d.  Entstehung,  &c.,  vol.  ii.  p.  225. 


262  HISTORY   OF   TEE 

no  service,  because  the  flesh  profitethi  nothing :  a  Christian, 
therefore,  must  consider  rather  to  what  purpose  he  eats  and 
drinks,  than  -what  it  is  that  he  eats  and  drinks.  Some,  how- 
ever, we  cannot  satisfy  in  this  manner.  They  importune  us 
to  tell  them  what  this  bread  and  wine  are ;  and  to  these  we 
are,  indeed,  unable  to  say  any  thing  definite  in  reply  with 
entire  conviction.  We  have,  therefore,  resolved  to  write  to 
you  on  the  subject,  sending  along  the  writings  of  Carlstadt, 
and  respectfully  to  request  that  you  would  not  think  light  of 
this  matter,  for  it  is  scarcely  credible  how  much  people's  minds 
are  disturbed  by  it.  There  is,  also,  no  little  exultation  among 
the  adversaries,  on  account  of  the  manner  in  which  Carlstadt, 
who  was  once  your  faithful  helper  in  the  gospel,  now  inveighs 
against  you.  We,  therefore,  beseech  you  for  Christ's  sake, 
who  has  given  you  richly  of  his  Spirit,  do  reply  finely  to  all 
that  Carlstadt  teaches,  but  reply  without  gall  and  wrath ; 
which  he,  indeed,  has  not  done,  but  he  has  thereby  made  all 
his  scribbling  hateful.  Let  it  appear  that  you,  and  you, 
indeed,  only,  have  hitherto  sought  the  honor  of  Christ,  and 
despised  human  interests."* 

We  must  not  suppose  that  these  divines  entertained  Luther's 
opinion  of  the  bodily  presence  of  Christ  in  the  elements  of  the 
sacrament  as  he  afterwards  explained  it.  Before  this  con- 
troversy arose,  he  had  spoken  so  vaguely  that  he  might  easily 
be  misunderstood ;  and  when  the  Strasburg  preachers  told 
him  that  they  agreed  with  him,  it  was  because  they  thought 
that  he  agreed  with  them.  How  they  had  understood  him, 
appears  from  a  letter,  written  by  Bucer,  in  1537,  to  Bonifacius 
Wolfliard  and  the  people  of  Angshurg,  in  which  the  writer 
says :  "  This  I  candidly  say,  brethren,  and  in  the  Lord's  pre- 
sence I  think  so,  that  the  pious  ought  to  wish  that  nothing  had 
ever  been  written  against  Luther  concerning  the  eucharist.  .  ,  . 
He  had  already  placed  every  thing  in  a  spiritual  eating — had 
of  his  own  accord  very  much  refined  the  corporal  eating — had 
taken  away  reliance  upon  the  external  work.    But  when  Carl- 

*  Plank,  Gesch.  d.  Entsteliung,  vol.  ii.  p.  227. 


GERMAN   REFORMED    CHURCn.  263 

stadt  provoked  the  man,  as  he  had  persuaded  himself  tliat 
Carlstadt  wished  to  abolish  entirely  the  external  word  and 
sacraments,  so  he  was  wholly  intent  on  exalting  them ;  just  as 
there  is  nothing  in  him  that  is  not  vehement :  whence  it  was 
that  we  ourselves,  and  our  Oecolampadius  and  Zwingle,  thought 
that  he  again  attributed  a  justifying  power  to  externals,  which, 
hoAvever,  he  never  intended."*  They  seem  now  to  have 
doubted  whether  they  had  rightly  understood  Luther,  and 
whether,  indeed,  they  ought  to  admit  a  bodily  presence  of 
Christ  in  any  sense  at  all ;  and  for  these  reasons,  they  wished 
for  Luther's  answer,  but  wished  to  have  it  mild  and  calm,  and 
consistent  with  the  peace  of  the  church  and  the  safety  of  the 
principles  upon  which  it  rested :  nor  had  they  thus  far  any 
reason  to  believe  that  Luther  would  make  his  dogma  an  essen- 
tial part  of  Christianity,  and  would  denounce  as  unchristian 
and  wicked  all  who  dissented  from  it ;  for  he  had  spoken  with 
great  forbearance,  even  of  transubstantiation.f 

Instead  of  answering  this  letter,  Luther  wrote  a  warning 
epistle,  addressed  to  "all  the  Christians  at  Strasburg."  This 
epistle  was  evidently  designed  to  counteract  the  effect  of  Carl- 
stadt's  publication,  and  to  prepare  the  way  for  his  reply ;  and 
for  this  purpose  it  was  well  adapted.  After  an  affectionate 
introduction,  and  a  friendly  exhortation  to  perseverance, 
growth  in  Christian  knowledge,  and  unanimity  of  sentiment, 
the  writer  adverts  to  the  pernicious  effect  of  dissension  and 
sectarian  division  among  Christians,  and  urges  the  duty  of 
watchfulness  as  a  necessary  precaution  against  their  destruc- 
tive tendencies.  He  observes  that,  if  the  doctrine  they  had 
received  was  the  true  gospel,  of  which  ho  entertained  no  doubt, 
it  would  be  tried,  both  on  the  right  hand  and  on  the  left ;  by 
reproach  and  hatred  on  the  one,  and  by  divisions  and  heresies 
on  the  other.  He  now  comes  to  Carlstadt,  and  classes  him 
with  the  fanatical  prophets  whom  the  community  believed  to 

*  Gerdesii  Scrinium,  vol.  v.  p.  227,  in  Gieseler,  yoI.  iii.  p.  190,  note  24. 

f  "  Docli  an  diesem  Irrtlium  nicht  gross  gelegen  ist,  wenn  nur  Christi 
Leib  und  Blut  da  bleibt."  Vom  Anbetcn  dcs  Sacrame/its,  1523.  Gieseler, 
p.  190,  n.  22. 


264  HISTORY   OF   THE 

be  under  the  influence  of  an  cA^il  spirit,  and  refers  his  doctrine 
on  the  Lord's  supper  to  the  same  category  with  his  intemperate 
zeal  against  images,  and  other  excesses,  that  distinguished  the 
fanatics  of  Zwickau  and  AltstUd ;  and  by  placing  it  in  such 
company,  he  makes  it  a  partaker  of  the  same  odium.  He 
laments  that  all  Carlstadt's  zeal  is  expended  upon  externals, 
■while  the  essentials  of  Christianity  are  overlooked,  and  ex- 
presses his  sorrow  that  this  man  should  be  still  so  deeply 
immersed  in  error.  He  urges  his  readers  to  let  their  only 
inquiry  be,  what  it  is  that  constitutes  the  Christian,  and,  if  any 
thing  be  pressed  upon  them,  to  ask  the  single  question.  Pray, 
does  this  make  me  a  Christian,  or  not  ?  and  if  it  does  not,  to 
take  heed  that  they  do  not  view  it  and  embrace  it  as  though 
it  were  fundamental.  He  then  comes  to  his  tenet  on  the 
Lord's  supper,  and  says :  "  If  Carlstadt,  or  any  other  person, 
had  been  able,  five  years  ago,  to  convince  me  that  in  the  Lord's 
supper  there  is  nothing  more  than  bread  and  wine,  he  would 
have  done  me  an  important  service.  I  had  a  hard  conflict 
there,  and  strove  and  struggled  to  get  out  of  it,  because  I  saw 
plainly  that  I  could  thereby  give  the  severest  stroke  to  the 
papacy.  I  have,  also,  had  two  who  wrote  to  me  concerning 
it  more  skilfully  than  Carlstadt,  and  did  not,  like  him,  murder 
the  words  by  their  own  conceits.  But  I  am  fast ;  I  cannot 
get  out ;  the  text  is  too  powerful  here,  and  will  not  suffer  itself 
to  be  torn  away  from  the  mind  by  words."  He  then  adverts 
to  Carlstadt's  accusation  of  him,  as  though  he  were  the  author 
of  his  banishment,  and  answers  him  by  giving  a  statement  of 
his  own  treatment  at  Orlamiinda,  among  what  he  calls  Carl- 
stadt's Christians,  where  he  was  glad,  he  says,  that  he  was  not 
pelted  with  stones  and  dirt,  and  where  he  was  dismissed  with 
the  parting  benediction,  "Begone,  in  the  name  of  a  thousand 
devils,  that  you  may  break  your  neck  before  you  get  beyond 
the  town !"  He  exhorts  the  readers  to  be  wiser  than  he 
and  his  adversary,  and  to  look  away  from  men,  and  beseeches 
their  pastors  to  look  away  from  Luther  and  Carlstadt,  and  to 
turn  their  attention  to  Christ  alone;  "for  I  perceive,"  he 
says,  "  that  it  is  the  devil's  artifice  to  draw  people's  minds 


GERMAN   REFORMED   CHURCH.  265 

away  from  Christ,  and  to  occupy  them  with  men,  with  their 
piety  or  their  wickedness,  with  their  controversies  and  strifes, 
and  thus  to  cause  them  to  lose  sight  of  the  fundamentals  of 
Christianity."  This  whole  letter  is  written  with  mildness 
and  humility ;  and  where  the  author  assumes  the  character  of 
a  teacher,  he  draws  over  it  a  veil  of  modesty  that  gives  it  the 
greater  eifect,  and  wins  the  reader  by  softening  and  soothing 
him.  It  is  plain  that  Luther  does  not  here  place  his  tenet  on 
the  Lord's  supper  among  the  fundamentals  of  Christianity, 
nor  raise  it  higher  than  it  was  in  the  estimation  of  Capito  and 
Bucer ;  but  he  intimates,  nevertheless,  that  it  possessed  no 
little  certainty,  by  the  account  which  he  gives  of  his  own  con- 
flict about  it,  his  desire  to  escape  from  it,  and  his  inability  to 
do  so  because  the  text  was  too  strong  for  his  wishes. 

After  this  example  of  gentleness,  it  is  surprising  that  the 
author  should  soon  afterwards  reply  to  Carlstadt  with  so  much 
coarseness,  acrimony,  and  biting  sarcasm,  as  he  infused  into 
his  tract.  Wider  die  Himmlischen  Propheten,  &c., — "  Against 
the  Heavenly  Prophets,"  &c.  It  was  the  difficulty  of  account- 
ing for  this  change  that  induced  Plank  and  Schroeck  to  suppose 
that  the  letter  addressed  to  the  Strasburgers  was  written 
before  that  of  their  divines  had  been  received,  and  that  the 
information  contained  in  the  latter  put  Luther  into  a  passion, 
under  the  influence  of  which  he  wrote  this  tract.  But  here 
they  are  evidently  wrong  :*  Luther  could  be  composed,  and 
could  write  calmly  and  kindly  to  friends  who  loved  and 
respected  him,  but  always  lost  his  temper  when  he  sat  down 
to  reply  to  an  enemy  who  reviled  him  and  his  doctrine,  and 
especially  when  that  enemy  was  Carlstadt.  From  this  time, 
the  tenet  of  the  literally  bodily  presence  was  a  favorite  with 
him :  it  was  placed  among  the  fundamental  doctrines  of 
Christianity  ;  without  it,  he  thought,  there  could  be  no  salva- 

*  The  letter  of  the  Strasburg  divines  was  written  on  the  23d  of  November, 
1524,  and  could  therefore  easily  reach  Luther  before  the  15th  of  December, 
which  is  the  date  of  his  letter ;  and  Luther,  in  his  letter,  acknowledges 
having  received  a  communication  from  several  correspondents  in  Strasburg, 
before  he  wrote. 

X  34 


266  HISTORY   OF   THE 

tion ;  and  those  who  rejected  it  "were  placed  in  the  scale  of 
religion  even  lower  than  Papists,  Jews,  or  Turks. 

This  tract,  "Against  the  Heavenly  Prophets,"  was  pub- 
lished in  January,  1525.  It  consists  of  two  parts.  In  the 
first,  the  author  replies  to  Carlstadt's  arguments  against  the 
use  of  images,  or  rather  the  toleration  of  them,  in  their 
churches ;  to  his  charges  against  Luther  as  the  author  of  his 
banishment ;  and  to  his  tract  on  the  mass.  In  the  second,  he 
is  occupied  with  the  refutation  of  Carlstadt's  reasoning  against 
the  doctrine  of  Christ's  bodily  presence  in  the  bread  and  wine. 
"  The  writer  grows  manifestly  warmer,"  says  professor  Plank, 
"  when  he  comes  to  the  charges  which  his  antagonist  had 
advanced  with  shameless  effrontery  against  his  doctrine ;  the 
charges  that  he  represented  the  mass  as  a  sacrifice,  that  he 
attributed  the  efiicacy  of  the  sacrament  to  the  mere  external 
participation,  and  that  he  pretended  to  give  the  pardon  of 
sins  to  the  troubled  conscience  by  a  piece  of  bread :  and  now 
— as  if  he  had  needed  first  to  set  himself  on  fire,  he  passes,  in 
the  second  part,  to  Carlstadt's  doctrine,  in  order  to — execute 
upon  it  the  most  unmerciful  retribution."* 

Carlstadt  had  urged  the  contradictions  that  were  involved 
in  the  notion  of  a  real  presence  of  the  material  body  of  Christ 
in  the  sacrament,  and  the  impossibility  of  a  union  of  it  with 
the  bread ;  and  the  force  of  this  reasoning  he  had  brought 
to  bear  upon  the  words  of  institution.  Take,  eat,  this  is  my 
body,  &c.,  and  had  applied  to  show  that  they  could  not  con- 
tain the  meaning  which  Luther  ascribed  to  them.  But  now, 
instead  of  showing  that  the  words,  TJiis  is  my  body,  &c.,  must 
have  a  tropical  meaning,  and  that  the  bread  and  wine  are 
only  signs  or  emblems  of  Christ's  body  and  blood,  he  left  to 
them  a  literal  signification,  and  contended  that  these  latter 
words  must  be  separated  from  those  which  immediately  pre- 
cede them  and  referred  to  a  different  subject;  that  in  the 
former.  Take  and  eat,  Christ  had  reference  to  the  bread  which 
he  broke  and  distributed  among  his  disciples;    and  in  the 

*  Plank,  Yol.  ii.  p.  234. 


GERMAN   REFORMED    CHURCH.  267 

latter,  Tliis  is  my  hody,  &c.,  he  had  reference  to  his  body,  to 
Avhich  he  pointed,  as  he  spoke,  while  they  were  eating.  Luther 
easily  overturned  this  reasoning  ;  and  as  soon  as  he  had  shown 
that  such  a  rupture  in  the  connection  was  inadmissible,  and 
that  Christ  spoke  of  the  bread  throughout,  in  both  the  parts  of 
the  discourse,  Carlstadt's  entire  argument  was  demolished,  and 
Luther's  victory  complete.  He  needed  not  now  to  solve  any 
of  the  difiBculties  that  burdened  his  interpretation  ;  he  needed 
not  to  remove  any  contradictions,  or  to  disprove  the  impossi- 
bility of  his  theory ;  he  needed  but  to  reply,  "  The  Lord  has 
said  it :  he  calls  the  bread  his  body ;  his  word  must  be  true, 
whatever  reason  may  say  to  the  contrary ;  and  here,  there- 
fore, I  take  my  stand."  But  his  zeal  impelled  him,  neverthe- 
less, to  reply  to  every  thing  his  antagonist  had  said,  like  the 
victor  who  pursues  the  flying  fugitives,  and  returns  to  wreak 
his  vengeance  still  upon  the  wounded  and  the  dead.  He 
undertakes  the  solution  of  every  difficulty,  and  argues  upon 
every  point  with  an  ingenuity,  a  skill,  and  an  adroitness, 
which,  though  they  may  not  convince,  cannot  fail  to  excite 
admiration  of  bis  controversial  ability  :  but,  while  he  manifests 
himself  far  above  his  antagonist  in  every  other  respect,  he  is 
not  unlike  him  in  wrathful  invective  and  coarse  obloquy  ;  and 
Carlstadt's  scurrility  is  fully  repaid  with  interest. 

Luther,  however,  could  not  but  be  sensible  that  his  solutions 
were  not  always  happy,  and  that  objections  could  be  urged 
against  his  theory  to  which  it  was  not  easy,  perhaps  not  pos- 
sible, to  find  a  satisfactory  answer  ;  he  felt  that  his  safety 
was  in  holding  firmly  to  the  literal  signification  of  the  words, 
Tim  is  my  body,  &c.  Within  this  citadel,  he  might  laugh  at 
reason,  philosophy,  and  criticism,  and  at  every  weapon  they 
could  point  against  him :  his  opponent  might  prove  that  his 
theory  was  absurd ;  that  the  presence  of  the  same  extended 
body  in  more  than  one  place  at  the  same  time  was  impossible ; 
that  the  eating  of  Christ's  body,  if  it  were  possible,  would  be 
useless ;  that,  if  it  were  real,  it  must  be  perceptible  by  the 
senses ;  or  whatever  else  they  might  prove :  to  all  this  he 
could  give  the  same  reply,  "Christ  has  said  it;  here  are  his 


268  HISTORY   OF   THE 

plain,  dry,  unsophisticated  words,  Tliis  is  my  body.  How  it 
can  bo,  I  know  not ;  it  is  incomprehensible ;  but  I  believe  it, 
because  the  Lord  has  said  so."  If  it  was  urged  that  the 
meaning  of  the  text  must  be  tropical,  because  the  literal 
sense  would  be  absurd,  he  could  reply,  and  did  reply,  "  Prove 
to  me  by  scriptural  testimony,  and  not  by  philosophy,  that  its 
meaning  is  tropical;  produce  a  text  that  plainly  says  so." 
If  parallel  places  were  adduced,  in  which  the  same  form  of 
speech  occurred  as  an  acknowledged  trope,  he  might  still  de- 
mand a  Scripture-text  that  said,  in  so  many  words,  that  the 
text  in  question  must  be  so  understood.  Seeing  the  advan- 
tage of  this  position  at  the  outset,  he  resolved  at  once  to 
occupy  it,  and  to  reduce  the  whole  controversy,  as  far  as  pos- 
sible, to  this  one  point,  namely,  the  sense  of  the  words  of 
institution,  This  is  my  body.  This,  therefore,  he  does  already 
in  his  answer  to  Carlstadt ;  he  does  it  with  the  skill  of  a  per- 
fect tactician,  and  never  suffers  himself  to  be  enticed  from  it 
any  farther  than  he  retains  the  power  to  return  to  it  at 
pleasure,  as  often  as  he  feels  himself  hard  pressed  by  his 
antagonist. 

Professor  Plank  says  of  this  work  :  "  If  it  be  considered  in 
the  true  point  of  view  in  which  alone  it  ought  to  be  contem- 
plated, if  it  be  looked  at  only  as  a  controversial  writing  di- 
rected against  Carlstadt  and  his  peculiar  opinion,  we  cannot  but 
pronounce  it  one  of  his  best  works ;  but  neither  can  we  forbear 
to  believe  that  it  would  be  still  much  better,  if  it  were  Avritten 
with  more  moderation  and  less  heat.  We  must,  indeed,  re- 
member, that  Luther  had  never,  perhaps,  in  all  his  life  been 
so  much  provoked  to  resign  himself  wholly  to  his  impetuosity; 
yet  we  cannot  feel  so  much  inclined,  as  we  might  otherwise  be, 
to  pardon  him  on  account  of  that  provocation,  as  soon  as  we 
give  place  to  another  very  natural  consideration.  It  is 
highly  probable  that  moderation  on  Luther's  part,  if  it  had 
not  wholly  terminated  the  unhappy  strife,  would  at  least  have 
prevented  many  of  those  offensive  occurrences  which  now  fol- 
lowed in  a  long  succession.  If  he  had  been  content  with  con- 
troverting Carlstadt's  peculiar  interpretation  of  the  words  of 


GERMAN   REFORMED    CHURCH.  269 

institution ;  if  he  had  shown  that  it  was  forced,  at  variance 
with  the  connection,  and,  therefore,  groundless ;  if  he  had 
shown,  at  the  same  time,  that,  agreeably  to  their  natural  in- 
terpretation, a  bodily  presence  of  Christ  in  the  sacrament 
must  be  admitted,  but  had  added  that  the  benefit  of  the  sa- 
crament can  be  as  little  derived  from  this  presence,  as  the 
presence  itself  can  be  a  subject  of  investigation ;  if  he  had 
said  only  this, — for,  at  bottom,  after  all,  he  said  no  more, — if 
he  had  said  only  this,  and  had  said  it  without  bitterness  and 
without  reviling,  Carlstadt  would  hardly  have  found  such 
warm  defenders,  nor  the  bodily  presence  such  zealous  adver- 
saries. The  Capites,  the  Bucers,  and  many  other  enlightened 
men,  would  have  risen  up  with  him  against  the  innovating 
Carlstadt,  and  many  of  those  who,  in  some  measure,  agreed 
with  him  respecting  the  bodily  presence,  would,  doubtless, 
have  deemed  it  unnecessary  to  contend  about  it.  But  now 
the  contrary  must  ensue.  Before  Carlstadt  had  arisen,  other 
men  had  already  doubted  of  a  bodily  presence;  and  these 
must  necessarily  have  felt  themselves  injured  in  Carlstadt. 
Provoked  by  the  scorn,  and  by  the  reproach  of  weakness  and 
of  wickedness,  which  Luther  poured  upon  the  doubts  of  his 
antagonist,  they — for  they  also  were  men — must  have  felt 
themselves  bound  now  to  submit  theirs  also  to  the  world. 
They  had,  moreover,  stronger  doubts  than  Carlstadt's  to  pro- 
pound ;  they  could  produce  more  constraining  reasons  for 
their  opinion ;  they  were,  at  the  same  time,  conscious  that, 
with  their  conviction,  they  were  not  less  upright,  they  were 
not  less  zealous  for  the  truth,  they  had  not  less  reverence  for 
the  word  of  God,  than  Luther  ever  could  have  with  liis  own. 
Nothing  else  was  therefore  to  be  expected  than  that  they 
would  now  arise.  This  also  now  took  place  soon  after  the 
appearance  of  Luther's  work.  Men  rose  up  against  him,  be- 
side whom  Carlstadt  was  scarcely  observed,  who  pressed  the 
latter  from  the  scene,  and  themselves  took  up  the  strife,  which, 
in  their  hands,  assumed  quite  another  aspect."* 


*  Plank,  vol.  ii.  p.  247,  &c. 

x2 


270  HISTORY   OP   THE 

Long  before  tliis  controversy  began,  Zwingle  had  enter- 
tained doubts  about  the  doctrine  of  transubstantiation.  He 
coukl  discover  no  ground  for  the  belief  of  a  doctrine  that  con- 
tradicted both  his  reason  and  the  evidence  of  his  senses.  His 
doubts  on  this  point  led  him  to  the  discovery  that  the  benefit 
to  be  derived  from  the  sacrament  could  not  depend  from  the 
conversion  of  the  bread  into  the  body  of  Christ,  nor,  indeed, 
from  any  corporeal  presence  of  Christ  at  all.  He  could  not 
perceive  either  the  utility  or  the  possibility  of  eating  the  flesh 
of  Christ  and  drinking  his  blood ;  and  he  "was  satisfied  that 
the  mere  act  of  oral  participation,  when  no  moral  effect  was 
produced,  could  not  itself  be  saving  to  the  soul.  He  was, 
therefore,  easily  moved  to  adopt  the  opinion  which  Berenga- 
rius,  Kabanus  Maurus,  Wickliffe,  and  others,  whose  writings 
he  read,  had  held  before  him.  The  church,  indeed,  had 
branded  this  opinion  with  the  mark  of  heresy,  and  declared 
those  accursed  that  held  it ;  but  this  unrighteous  sentence  did 
not  lessen  its  value  in  his  estimation.  Those  distinsruished 
men  had  long  stood  high  in  his  esteem ;  their  theory  solved 
all  his  difficulties ;  it  involved  no  dangerous  consequence ;  it 
hai-monized  with  his  other  principles ;  and  all  that  was  still 
required  was,  to  show  that  the  words  of  institution,  when 
rightly  interpreted,  harmonized  with  it  also. 

In  Zwingle's  view,  the  Lord's  supper  was  a  memorial  of  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  designed  as  a  commemoration  of  him  in 
his  vicarious  death.  The  bread  and  wine  were  signs  or  symbols 
of  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ :  the  whole  transaction  was 
symbolical,  representing  that  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  gave 
himself  for  us,  for  the  remission  of  sins,  and  that,  by  faith  in 
him,  and  in  the  efficacy  of  his  death,  as  the  propitiation  for 
sin,  we  are  fed  and  nourished  to  eternal  life ;  and  the  whole 
benefit  derived  from  communion,  in  the  ordinance,  was  the 
moral  effect  of  this  devout  and  grateful  commemoration.  This 
view  he  entertained  some  years  in  private  before  he  promul- 
gated it  in  his  public  discourses  or  his  writings.  His  reserve 
did  not  arise  from  a  fear  of  opposition,  but  from  a  desire  to 
obtain  for  it  a  more  easy  reception  by  delay,  and  from  an 


GERMAN   REFORMED    CHURCn.  271 

impression  that  the  community  was  unprepared  for  a  truth 
which  was  yet  so  new,  and  which  to  many  would  appear  so 
unhallowed  and  profane.  In  a  letter  to  Wittenbach,  dated 
June  25, 1523,  he  communicated  it  to  his  venerated  preceptor 
as  an  opinion  which  he  was  not  yet  prepared  to  divulge. 
"  From  all  this,"  says  he,  "  I  suppose,  most  learned  preceptor, 
you  will  perceive  our  opinion,  not  that  I  already  teach  so  ;  for 
I  fear  lest  the  swine,  turning  upon  us,  should  rend  both  the 
doctrine  and  the  teacher ;  not  that  I  value  this  troubled  life 
so  highly,  but  lest  a  doctrine,  that  may  be  justly  and  piously 
taught,  might  suffer,  and  give  occasion  for  disturbance  among 
Christians,  if  it  were  unseasonably  promulged."*  In  public, 
he  went  no  farther  at  this  time  than  to  reject  the  doctrine  of 
transubstantiation,  which  he  does  in  the  exposition  of  his 
eighteenth  thesis.  His  plan  was,  to  prepare  the  public  mind 
for  the  promulgation  of  his  doctrine  by  preliminary  instruc- 
tions, and  to  enlist  in  its  favor  the  suffrage  of  enlightened  men 
of  his  acquaintance,  who  might  take  it  under  their  protection, 
and  sustain  it  by  their  influence,  at  its  first  appearance.  For 
the  last-mentioned  object,  he  corresponded  with  many  eminent 
men  in  different  countries.  To  some  he  communicated  only 
his  doubts ;  to  others  he  imparted  his  own  opinion,  and  the 
grounds  upon  which  it  rested ;  and  to  all  he  made  the  request 
to  examine  the  subject,  and  to  favor  him  with  the  result  of 
their  investigations.  In  this  way,  he  often  learnt  that  his 
doubts  had  wrought  well  with  some ;  that  others  were  not  dis- 
inclined to  his  opinion ;  and,  in  some  instances,  that  others 
again  had  even  entertained  the  same  before  him :  and  being 
thus  sustained  by  the  judgment  of  men  whom  he  respected, 
he  was  both  confirmed  in  his  belief,  and  encouraged  to  publish 
it,  as  presenting  the  only  correct  view  of  the  ordinance.f 
About  this  time,  two  learned  and  pious  travellers,  John  Rho- 
dius  and  George  Taganus,  came  to  Zurich  to  converse  with 
Zwingle  on  the  same  subject.  When  they  had  heard  his 
opinion,  having  concealed  their  own,  they  gave  thanks  to  God 

*  Gieseler,  vol.  iii.  p.  192,  note  27. 
•)•  Plank,  vol.  ii.  p.  257. 


272  HISTORY   OF   THE 

for  their  deliverance  from  tlie  prevailing  error,  and  then  put 
into  his  hands  the  tract  of  Cornelius  Honnius,  containing  his 
own  exposition  of  the  words  of  institution.* 

Among  his  confidential  correspondents  was  Mattheus  Alber, 
pastor  of  a  church  in  Reutlingen.  To  this  man  he  imparted 
his  opinion,  and  the  argument,  at  length,  by  which  he  main- 
tained it.  It  was  based  chiefly  upon  the  discourse  of  Christ, 
in  the  sixth  chapter  of  John,  Avhere  the  Lord  speaks  of  eating 
his  flesh  and  drinking  his  blood.  He  granted  that  Christ  had 
no  reference  in  that  place  to  the  eucharistic  supper,  but 
observed  that  he  there  spoke  of  an  eating  of  his  flesh  and  a 
drinking  of  his  blood,  by  which  nothing  of  a  material  nature 
was  intended.  The  Lord  calls  himself  the  bread  of  life,  and 
declares  that  whoever  eats  of  this  bread  shall  never  die ;  and 
he  presently  explains  in  what  sense  it  is  that  he  calls  himself 
a  living  food,  and  in  what  sense  this  living  food  m-ay  be  eaten : 
"  The  bread  which  I  will  give  is  my  flesh,  which  I  will  give 
for  the  life  of  the  world;"  and,  "Whosoever  believeth  in  me 
hath  eternal  life."  His  flesh  is,  therefore,  become  the  food 
of  the  soul  so  far  as  it  is  given  for  the  life  of  the  world,  that 
is,  so  far  as  it  is  delivered  to  death  for  the  world's  salvation ; 
and  to  eat  his  flesh,  and  to  drink  his  blood,  is  to  believe  in 
him ;  to  believe  that  he  was  ofi'ered  to  God,  as  an  expiatory 
sacrifice  for  our  sins,  in  his  flesh,  that  is,  in  his  human  nature. 
Hence,  when  the  Jews  took  ofi'ence  at  his  words,  because  he 
insisted  on  the  necessity  of  eating  his  flesh  and  drinking  his 
blood  if  they  would  have  life,  he  remarked,  in  explanation  of 
his  meaning,  "It  is  the  spirit  that  quickeneth :  the  flesh  pro- 
fiteth  nothing."  "What,"  says  Zwingle,  here,  "can  be  more 
forcible  than  these  words  to  overthrow  all  the  figments  of  an 
essential  bodily  flesh  of  Christ  in  the  sacrament  ?  If  the  eat- 
ing of  his  flesh  in  this  sense  would  be  useless,  could  Christ 
have  designed  to  give  us  his  flesh  to  eat  in  the  sacrament  ? 
Would  he  give  what  he  declares  to  be  useless  ?"f 

From  this  idea  of  eating  Christ's  flesh  and  drinking  his 

■*  Gieseler,  vol.  iii.  p.  192,  note  27. 
f  Plank,  vol.  ii.  p.  2G1. 


GERMAN  REFORMED  CHURCH.  273 

blood,  wliicli  is  the  same  as  believing  in  him,  trusting  in  him, 
feeding  upon  him,  as  it  were,  by  faith,  Zwingle  inferred  the 
necessity  of  finding  another  than  the  literal  interpretation  of 
the  words  of  institution,  Tliis  is  my  body — This  is  my  blood. 
Such  an  interpretation  he  found  in  the  tropical  use  of  the  verb 
to  be,  of  which  the  Bible  furnishes  many  examples :  as,  The 
seven  fat  kine  are  seven  fruitful  years — The  seven  lean  kine 
are  seven  years  of  famine — The  seed  is  the  word — The  field 
is  the  world — The  good  seed  are  the  children  of  the  kingdom — 
The  tares  are  the  children  of  the  wicked  one — The  harvest  is 
the  end  of  the  world — The  reapers  are  the  angels,  &c.  &c.  In 
all  these,  and  in  innumerable  similar  instances,  the  verb  to  be 
has  the  signification  of  to  signify,  to  represent.  The  connection 
determines  it  to  this  meaning,  because  it  would  make  the 
literal  signification  absurd :  and  precisely  similar  is  the  text, 
This  is  my  body ;  for  the  bread  is  no  more  the  body  of  Christ 
than  seven  kine  are  seven  years,  or  tares  growing  in  a  field 
are  an  ofi'spring  of  the  devil. 

This  sense,  Zwingle  observes,  is  in  harmony,  also,  with  the 
design  of  the  Lord's  supper,  which  Christ  himself  indicates, 
saying:  "Do  this  in  remembrance  of  me."  "Inasmuch  as 
he  says  this  so  distinctly,  what  can  be  more  natural,"  says 
Zwingle,  "  than  this  sense  of  his  words :  Take  and  eat  this 
bread  in  remembrance  of  me ;  for  what  I  now  direct  you  to 
do  is  designed  to  signify  to  you,  or  to  call  to  your  remem- 
brance, the  fact  that  my  body  is  given  for  you.  Luke,  more- 
over, uses  the  words  in  this  sense,  when  he  says :  This  cup  is 
the  New  Testament  in  my  blood.  The  new  covenant  is 
founded  in  the  blood  of  Christ ;  but  the  cup  is  not  his  blood, 
but  the  sisn  that  signifies  to  us  that  Christ's  blood  was  shed 
for  us." 

There  is  nothing  repugnant  to  this  sense  in  the  words  of 
St.  Paul :  "  The  bread  which  we  break,  is  it  not  the  communion 
of  the  body  of  Christ?"  The  connection  shows  that  the 
apostle  uses  the  term  body  here  in  a  wholly  diflferent  sense. 
He  means  by  it  the  spiritual  body  of  Christ ;  that  is,  the 
church,  of  which  true  Christians  are  members ;  for  he  adds 

85 


274  HISTORY   OP   THE 

that  all  who  partake  of  this  bread  are  one  body.  This  one 
body  can  be  no  other  than  that  of  which  Christ  is  the  head. 
We  come  into  communion  with  this  body  by  partaking  of  the 
consecrated  bread:  the  plain  meaning  is,  that  we  become 
members  of  Christ,  and  have  communion  with  all  those  who 
trust  in  him  and  are  pledged  to  live  agreeably  to  his  precepts. 

Zwino-le's  exposition  of  this  last  text  is  ingenious,  but  not 
solid.  The  apostle  had  just  before  said  :  "  The  cup  of  blessing, 
is  it  not  the  communion  of  the  blood  of  Christ  ?"  Now,  though 
the  church  be  often  called  the  body  of  Christ,  it  is  never  called 
Christ's  blood.  But  we  are  obliged  by  the  connection  to 
understand  the  communion  with  the  body  of  Christ  in  the 
same  sense  in  which  we  understand  the  communion  with  his 
blood. 

The  terms,  the  body  and  the  blood  of  Christ,  are  a  peri- 
phrasis for  Christ  himself  considered  as  a  man,  and  communion 
with  his  body  and  blood  is  communion  with  him.  The  apostle 
is  here  endeavoring  to  dissuade  the  .Corinthian  Christians  from 
making  approaches  to  idolatrous  worship,  by  accepting  invita- 
tions from  their  heathen  friends  to  partake  with  them  of  the 
sacrificial  feasts,  in  the  temples,  which  were  celebrated  in 
honor  of  their  idols ;  and  it  is  manifest  that  he  had  in  view 
such  a  communion  with  Christ  in  the  eucharistic  supper  as  the 
Jews  had  with  Jehovah  in  their  feasts  upon  the  sacrifices 
which  they  ofi'ered  to  him,  and  as  the  Gentiles  thought  they 
had  Avith  their  gods  in  their  sacrificial  feasts  in  the  idols'  tem- 
ples. "Behold,"  says  the  apostle,  "Israel  after  the  flesh ; 
are  not  they  which  eat  of  the  sacrifices  partakers  of  the 
altar?" — "But  I  say,  that  the  things  which  the  Gentiles 
sacrifice,  they  sacrifice  unto  demons,  and  not  to  God :  and  I 
would  not  that  ye  should  have  fellowship  with  demons.  Ye 
cannot  drink  the  cup  of  the  Lord  and  the  cup  of  demons  ;  ye 
cannot  be  partakers  of  the  Lord's  table  and  of  the  table  of 
demons."  When  the  Israelites  brought  their  peace-offerings 
to  God,  one  part  of  the  victim  was  consumed  for  him  upon  the 
altar,  and  another  part  was  eaten  by  the  worshippers  in  a 
feast  which  was  celebrated  in  honor  of  him.     They  and  he 


GERMAN   REFORMED    CHURCH.  275 

thus  partook  of  the  same  victim,  aucl  had  fellowship  therein 
with  one  another  ;  and  the  victim  of  which  both  partook  was 
the  means  of  that  communion.  The  Gentiles  had  the  same 
kind  of  feasts  in  honor  of  their  idols,  and  the  same  idea  of 
communion  in  them  with  their  gods.  The  apostle,  therefore, 
argues  that  Christians  ought  not  to  accept  invitations  to  their 
sacrificial  feasts,  on  the  ground  that  their  communion  must  he 
with  Christ,  and  not  with  demons.  They  could  not  have  com- 
munion with  both  ;  and  hence  they  could  not  drink  the  cup 
of  the  Lord  and  the  cup  of  demons ;  they  could  not  be  par- 
takers (koinonoi,  communicants,)  of  the  Lord's  table  and  of 
the  table  of  demons.  The  Gentiles  never  thought  of  eating 
their  gods  in  those  feasts,  but  of  having  communion  or  fellow- 
ship with  them.  So  the  apostle  never  thought  of  eating 
Christ,  when  we  eat  the  consecrated  bread;  but  of  having 
communion  with  him  in  that  holy  act.  Christ  is  conceived  of 
as  being  present  with  us  still,  and  partaking  with  us  of  the 
bread  and  wine  in  the  eucharistic  feast,  as  he  was  at  the  first 
institution  :  a  sublime  and  delightful  thought. 

Zwingle  had  strictly  enjoined  upon  Alber  not  to  communi- 
cate this  letter  to  any  one  whom  he  did  not  know  to  be  sincere 
and  worthy  of  confidence.*  It  had,  nevertheless,  come  into 
the  hands  of  more  than  five  hundred  persons,  either  through 
ZAvingle  himself,  who  communicated  copies  of  it,  or  through 
those  of  his  friends,  who,  like  Alber,  were  authorized  to  show 
it  to  such  as  they  deemed  trustworthy.  The  secret  wa^  not 
well  kept.  Moeller,  in  the  Reformations- Almanack  for  1819, 
says  that  Luther  obtained  a  knowledge  of  it,  and  was  induced 
thereby  to  write  with  more  passion  against  Carlstadt,  in  his 
work,  "Against  the  Heavenly  Prophets."  It  was,  therefore, 
a  secret  no  longer :  and  by  this  time,  indeed,  the  reason  for 
secresy  respecting  it  had  passed  away  by  the  controversy 
between  Luther  and  Carlstadt.  Zwingle  now  inserted  the 
argument  of  this  letter,  with  some  additions,  in  his  treatise  on 
true  and  false  religion,  which  he  published,  as  we  have  already 

*  Plank,  vol.  ii.  p.  2G4. 


276  HISTORY   OP   THE 

remarkecl,  in  March,  1525 ;  and  the  letter  itself  was  also 
printed  and  given  to  the  public  at  the  same  time.  He  would, 
probably,  have  delayed  longer  still,  but  circumstances  now 
arose  at  home  that  compelled  him  to  take  his  side  in  the  dis- 
pute and  to  avow  his  opinion  openly. 

In  Zurich  and  in  Basel,  as  well  as  in  Strashurg,  the  go- 
vernment suppressed  the  writings  of  Carlstadt,  and,  in  Basel, 
the  printer  who  had  printed  them  was  even  sent  to  prison.* 
In  these  circumstances,  Zwingle  could  not  remain  silent  with- 
out betraying  what  he  esteemed  the  cause  of  truth ;  and  of 
such  treachery  and  baseness  he  was  incapable.  He  first  de- 
clared from  the  pulpit  that  the  doctrine  of  Carlstadt  was 
neither  wicked  nor  fanatical,  nor  unscriptural,  and  his  writings 
ought,  therefore,  not  to  be  suppressed.  He  next  appeared 
before  the  council,  and  declared  his  readiness  to  defend  the 
doctrine  that  repudiated  the  notion  of  a  bodily  presence  of 
Christ  in  the  sacrament ;  but  stated  that  he  would  do  this  in  a 
difi'erent  manner,  and  by  other  arguments  than  those  which 
Carlstadt  had  used.  These  arguments  he  now  stated  and  ex- 
plained to  the  council,  and  published  in  his  treatise  on  true 
and  false  religion,  and  in  his  letter  previously  written  to  Alber ; 
and  to  these  he  added  the  Latin  tract  of  Honnius,  which  he 
published  together  with  his  own  work. 

The  reformer  had  been  so  hurried  in  his  principal  work, 
that  he  found  it  expedient,  in  this  same  year,  to  publish  a 
supplement  to  that  part  of  it  in  which  he  treats  of  the  Lord's 
supper.  In  this  supplement,  he  either  meets  objections  against 
his  theory,  or  confirms  it  by  additional  proofs.  Among  the 
latter  is  the  text  in  Exodus  xii.  11,  which  was  suggested  to 
him  in  a  dream,  and  of  which  we  shall  presently  have  occasion 
to  take  some  notice.  In  answering  objections,  he  evidently 
alludes  to  Luther,  whom,  however,  he  does  not  name.  Pro- 
fessor Plank  remarks,  that,  "  On  account  of  this  allusion,  it 
might  be  said,  indeed,  that  Zwingle  had  first  attacked  Luther, 
or  drawn  him  into  a  controversy.     But  this  cannot  be  charged 

*  Seckendorf,  sec.  cliv.  col.  G30.     Plank,  vol.  ii.  p.  259. 


GERMAN   REFORMED    CHURCH.  277 

to  him  as  a  fault.  If  he  was  to  defend  his  own  theory  at  all, 
he  must,  of  necessity,  refute  the  theories  of  his  opponents. 
He  might,  indeed,  have  forborne  to  speak  so  contemptuously 
of  the  opinion  which  Luther  and  his  party  maintained,  and  to 
pronounce  such  as  held  the  notion  of  a  bodily  presence  void 
of  common  sense.  But  it  must  be  remembered  that  Zwingle 
was  as  ardent  as  Luther,  and  that  Luther  had  already  pro- 
nounced the  rejection  of  this  bodily  presence  an  impious  error. 
Neither,  perhaps,  intended  to  provoke  the  other ;  but  it  hap- 
pened to  both,  as  it  usually  does  to  hasty  men,  that  they  give 
the  greatest  provocation  where  they  least  intend  it."*  We 
may  add,  that  Luther's  work  was  before  the  world ;  and  in 
that  work  he  left  no  neutral  ground :  he  that  was  not  for  him 
must  be  against  him ;  and  the  alternative  was  submission  or 
war.  Luther  was  at  this  time  less  concerned  for  the  peace  of 
the  church  than  for  the  success  of  any  doctrine  which  he  held 
to  be  true.  The  wonderful  success  of  his  reformation,  in  so 
brief  a  period,  had  wrought  in  him  such  a  conviction  that  the 
work  was  of  God,  and  that  God  would  complete  what  he  had 
begun,  that  he  seems  to  have  become  reckless  of  the  conse- 
quences of  his  mistakes,  believing  that  God  knew  how  to  over- 
rule all  events,  and  to  repair  what  Luther  might  spoil. f 

As  soon  as  Zwingle  appeared  in  the  field,  he  became  the 
object  of  attack,  and  Carlstadt  sunk  into  insignificance  and 
oblivion.  The  first  that  arose  against  him  was  John  Bugen- 
hagen,  surnamed,  from  his  country,  Pomeranus.  This  man 
published,  both  in  Latin  and  German,  an  epistle  addressed  to 
a  Doctor  Hess,  entitled,  "  Against  the  new  Error  concerning 
the  Sacrament  of  the  Body  and  Blood  of  Christ."  Both 
Plank  and  Schroeck  speak  of  this  work  as  an  insignificant 
production. I  The  author,  nevertheless,  far  from  being  con- 
scious of  any  incompetency  for  his  undertaking,  assumed 
toward  Zwingle  the  tone  of  a  master,  and  thought  himself  able 
both  to  refute  and  to  instruct  him.     This  self-complacency 

*  Plank,  vol.  ii.  p.  170.  f  Ibid.  p.  243. 

X  Ibid.  p.  271.  Schroeck,  vol.  i.  p.  3G0. 
Y 


278  HISTORY   OF   THE 

provoked  the  reformer,  in  his  reply,  not  only  to  answer  his 
adversary's  objections,  but  to  expose,  in  the  most  humiliating 
manner,  the  weakness  of  their  author:  "And,  doubtless," 
says  Plank,  "Bugenhagen  could  not  but  be  sensible  that  his 
attempt  to  do  so  "was  not  everywhere  a  failure.  It  succeeded 
so  well,  indeed,  that  a  wish  began  to  be  felt  that. Luther  him- 
self might  arise  to  maintain  his  cause,  lest  it  should  be  ruined 
in  the  hands  of  such  defenders.  This  wish  was  the  more 
natural,  since  a  man  now  presented  himself  as  Zwingle's  co- 
adjutor, whose  mere  assent  gave  to  his  opinion  a  greater 
weight  than  ten  Bugenhagens  could  have  given  to  the  doctrine 
of  Luther  by  their  vindications."* 

This  man  was  John  Oecolampadius,  or  Hausschein,  the  re- 
former of  Basel,  who,  in  the  judgment  of  Reuchlin  and  of 
Erasmus,  was  one  of  the  most  learned  men  of  that  century, 
and,  by  the  testimony  even  of  his  enemies,  one  of  the  most 
pious.  After  the  most  conscientious  investigation  of  the  con- 
troverted question,  he  felt  himself  constrained  to  reject  the 
notion  of  Christ's  bodily  presence  in  the  bread  and  wine,  and, 
with  Zwingle,  to  consider  these  elements  as  mere  signs  or 
symbols  of  the  Lord's  body  and  blood.  The  truth  was,  at 
that  time,  far  from  being  generally  received  in  Basel ;  and 
both  the  most  numerous  and  the  most  active  party  were  the 
adherents  of  the  old  system  of  Romanism.  Oecolampadius 
thought  that  the  propagation  of  the  new  opinion  would  most 
effectually  accelerate  the  progress  of  the  Reformation,  and 
overthrow  the  Romish  system  of  faith ;  and  he  thought  it,  for 
this  reason,  the  more  his  duty  to  publish  his  new  convictions 
to  the  world.  If  he  could  succeed  in  an  effort  to  convince 
others  as  he  was  himself  convinced  ;  if  he  could  bring  others 
to  sec  what  he  saw  with  clearness  himself,  that  the  ordinance 
which  the  Lord  had  appointed  was  simply  a  eucharistic  feast, 
in  commemoration  of  his  death  for  the  world's  salvation ;  that 
the  bread  and  wine  were  only  signs  that  represented  him  in 
the  one  great  sacrifice  of  his  body  and  blood ;  that  the  whole 

*  Plank,  vol.  ii.  p.  271. 


GERMAN    REFORMED    CHURCH.  279 

ceremony  was  a  symbolical  transaction,  designed  to  impress 
the  heart  -with  a  proper  sense  of  its  obligation  to  the  lledeemer, 
by  a  grateful  commemoration  of  his  love  in  laying  down  his 
life  for  us ;  if  he  could  succeed  in  an  eiFort  to  show  that  the 
Lord's  supper  was  nothing  more  and  nothing  less  than  this, 
the  entire  edifice  of  the  mass  Avould  be  at  once  exploded,  and 
with  it  the  whole  system  of  Romish  superstition  would  fall 
into  ruins.     But  he  knew  that  such  a  step  on  his  part  would 
create  a  great  sensation,  not  only  in  Basel,  but  in  all  G-ermany, 
and  would  expose  him  to  fierce  assaults,  and  subject  his  doc- 
trine to  the  severest  scrutiny ;  and  he  was,  therefore,  careful 
to  place  himself  before  the  Christian  world  at  once  in  the  most 
unexceptionable  and  the  most  imposing  attitude.     This  he  did 
in  a  Latin  work,  entitled.  Be  genuina  Verborum  Bomini:  Hoo 
est  Corpus  meuni,  juxta  vetustissimos  Auctores,  Expositione, — 
"  Of  the  genuine  Exposition  of  the  Lord's  Words,  This  is  my 
Body,  according  to  the  most  ancient  Authors."     In  Schroeck's 
opinion,  this  was  the  principal  writing  that  appeared  in  this 
controversy.      Erasmus  said  of  it,  that  it  fortified  the  new 
opinion  with  so  many  testimonies  and  so  many  arguments, 
that  it  seemed  the  very  elect  might  be  seduced  by  it.*     Pro- 
fessor Plank  says:  "Even  his  most  partial  adversaries  have 
not  denied  that,  in  this  work,  Oecolampadius  exhibited  the 
most  extensive  learning  and  the  most  splendid  and  striking 
penetration  ;  but  they  might  justly  have  acknowledged,  also, 
that  he  manifested  in  it  the  most  becoming  modesty,  the  most 
dignified  moderation,  and  certainly,  also,  the  most  sincere  love 
of  truth.     One  cannot  but  see  that  the  truly  pious  man  Avas 
solely  concerned  for  the  truth,  and  that  nothing  else  than  a 
pure  zeal  for  it  sometimes  imparted  to  his  language  a  warmth 
that  might  have  been  more  temperate.     Still  less  can  one  fail 
to  see  how  sedulously  he  sought  to  avoid  giving  cause  of  irrita- 
tion to  the  opponents  whom  he  could  foresee.     For  this  cause, 
he  so  framed  his  work  that  it  should  appear  to  be  directed 
against  the  ancient  defenders  of  the  bodily  presence,  par- 

*Scliroeck,  vol.  i.  p.  3G0,     Giescler,  vol.  iii.  p.  193,  note  28. 


280  HISTORY    OF   THE 

ticularly  against  Peter  Lombard,  and  otlicr  Romisli  "writers, 
rather  than  against  the  modern;  and  where  he  was  obliged  to 
refute  objections  or  arguments  which  Luther  had  urged,  he 
was  still  more  careful  than  Zwingle  to  avoid  the  appearance 
of  controverting  Luther.  It  was  to  be  expected  that  in  this 
work  he  would  often  coincide  with  Zwingle  ;  yet  it  is  manifest 
that  Oecolampadius  could  never  be  a  mere  follower  of  another. 
He  impressed  his  own  mark  upon  every  thing  which  he  pro- 
duced, and  often  chose  a  quite  peculiar  way  to  reach  the  end 
to  which  Zwingle  had  come  by  another." 

"He  begins,"  says  professor  Plank,  "with  the  objection, 
so  often  repeated,  that  was  continually  urged  at  the  threshold, 
against  the  advocates  of  the  new  opinion,  that  they  subjected 
the  mysteries  of  faith  to  reason,  and  measui'ed  the  power  of 
God  by  their  own.  He  grants  that  there  are  mysteries  of 
faith  that  surpass  our  comprehension ;  but  does  it  thence 
follow,  he  asks,  that  the  doctrine  of  the  sacraments  dare  not 
be  examined  ?  Who  has  yet  shown  that  this  doctrine  belongs 
to  these  incomprehensible  mysteries  ?  He  pledges  himself  to 
prove  that  the  sacraments,  as  to  their  nature  and  their  design, 
cannot  be  referred  to  this  class,  and  shows,  particularly,  that,  in 
the  sacrament  of  the  Lord's  supper,  nothing  miraculous,  nothing 
wonderful,  nothing  incomprehensible  can  be  admitted.  If  the 
apostles  had  believed,  he  asks,  that  Christ  really  intended  to 
give  them  his  body  to  eat,  by  the  words.  This  is  my  body, 
would  they  not,  at  least,  have  manifested  their  surprise  ? 
Would  they  not,  at  least,  have  signified  by  some  sign,  or  by 
some  question,  that  he  was  saying  something  incomprehensible 
to  them  ?  Is  not  their  silence  the  strongest  evidence,  that, 
even  at  the  first  hearing  of  his  words,  they  never  thought  of 
taking  them  in  a  literal  sense  ?  How  usual  was  it  with  them, 
on  other  occasions,  to  turn  to  him  with  questions,  even  about 
small  matters  that  only  seemed  strange  to  them  !  The  apostles 
themselves,  therefore,  thought  of  nothing  of  that  kind  on  this 
occasion  ;  and  the  teachers  of  the  primitive  church,  the  fathers 
of  the  earliest  centuries,  found  nothing  of  it  therein.  They 
can,  therefore,  have  taken  the  words  of  institution  in  no  other 


GERMAN   REFORMED    CHURCH.  281 

than  a  tropical  sense,  the  same  which  is  now  cried  down  as  so 
erroneous,  so  offensive,  and  so  dangerous. 

"  Here  Oecolampadius  propounds  an  interpretation  of  these 
words  that  seems,  indeed,  to  deviate  in  some  measure  from 
that  of  Zwingle,  but  is,  nevertheless,  substantially  the  same. 
He  lets  the  word  is  retain  its  literal  signification,  and  finds 
the  trope  in  the  word  bod^/,  which  he  understands  to  mean  a 
sign  or  figure  of  the  body  of  Christ,  but  acknowledges  that 
both  interpretations  yield  the  same  sense.  It  is,  therefore, 
immaterial,  he  says,  which  of  the  two  be  taken ;  but  he  now 
accumulates  proof  upon  proof  to  demonstrate  most  conclusively 
that  one  of  the  two  must  of  necessity  be  adopted. 

"  Having  laid  down  several  perfectly  correct  principles  of 
exegesis,  by  which  every  interpreter  must  be  guided  in  deter- 
mining the  literal  or  tropical  sense  of  a  place,  he  shows,  first, 
that,  agreeably  to  these  principles,  the  words  of  institution 
cannot  admit  a  literal  signification  at  all ;  and  secondly,  that 
no  other  tropical  signification  is  admissible  but  that  of  Zwingle 
or  his  own,  which  had  been  received  by  the  apostles  and  by 
the  primitive  church.  No  other,  he  says,  is  so  agreeable  to 
the  scriptural  usage  ;  no  other  is  so  fitted  to  remove  difiiculties 
that  are  otherwise  unavoidable  ;  and  no  other  flows  so  naturally 
from  the  intention  of  the  act  of  Christ.  The  first  he  proves 
in  part  by  the  Scripture  texts  already  adduced  by  Zwingle, 
and  in  part  by  others  collected  by  himself;  the  last  by  a  most 
ingenious  presentation  and  connection  of  all  the  circumstances 
in  the  history  of  the  institution.  Upon  the  second  he  dwells 
most,  because  he  designed  this  as  his  main  argument,  not  only 
for  the  correctness,  but  for  the  necessity  of  his  interpretation. 

"  He  endeavors  here  to  expose  the  philosophical  contradic- 
tions that  are  utterly  inseparable,  by  any  criticism,  from  the 
literal  sense  of  the  Avords.  If  we  must  say  in  a  quite  literal 
sense,  that  the  bread  is  the  body  of  Christ,  he  asks,  '  How 
can  this  be  explained  without  running  into  absurdity,  or 
into  blasphemy?'  If  we  hold  that  it  is  converted  into  the 
body  of  Christ,  or  that  it  contains  his  body,  how  many  incon- 
gruities are  involved  in  the  one  opinion,  and  how  unnatural, 
y2  36 


282  HISTORY   OF   THE 

how  forced,  is  the  expression  for  the  other !     If  Christ  had 
intended  this,  would  he  not  rather  have  said,  in  two  words, 
This  contains  my  body,  than  have  used  a  phrase  of  which  the 
Scripture  furnishes  no  other  example ;  a  mode  of  expression 
that  is  not  used  in  any  language  ?     The  example  of  red-hot 
iron,  (which  Luther  had  used,)  of  which  it  may,  in  some  respect, 
be  said,  This  iron  is  fire,  is  either  entirely  inappropriate,  for 
the  body  of  Christ  cannot  be  in  the  bread  as  fire  is  in  the 
iron ;   or,  if  its  applicability  must  be  granted,  we  then  have 
just  as  many  contradictions  as  before.     Some  of  the  most 
striking  of  these,  which,  however,  the  advocates  of  the  bodily 
presence  never  admitted,  he  now  sets  forth,  yet  does  it  only 
incidentally,  and  meanwhile  makes  his  approach,  in  his  main 
attack,  on  the  side  which  was  least  defensible,  and  was,  for 
that  reason,  most  obstinately  contested.    Like  his  predecessors, 
namely,  he  objects  to  the  bodily  presence,  as  the  weightiest 
of  its  inconsistencies,  its  inutility  to  any  assignable  end,  and 
from  this  position  draws  much  more  conclusive  inferences  than 
others  had  drawn  before  him.     When  they  shall  have  replied 
to  every  thing,  he  observes,  let  them  now  tell  us  yet  what  this 
bodily  presence  is  to  profit  us  that  the  sacrament  may  not  as 
well  profit  without  it.     Upon  this  he  reviews  the  imaginary 
benefits  which  the  scholastics  derived  from  it,  and  Luther  him- 
self rejected,  and  with  irresistible  evidence  proves  their  futility, 
and  then  asks  again,  what  other  conceivable  good  the  belief 
of  a  bodily  presence  can  efi"ect.    Is  it,  as  some  say,  that  Christ 
is  particularly  honored  by  us,  if,  without  an  object,  merely 
from  reverence  for  his  words,  we  believe  that  his  body  is  united 
with  the  bread  ?     But,  surely,  we  should  first  inquire  whether 
this  is  what  he  intended  to  say.     And  would  he,  even  then, 
consider  himself  so  particularly  honored  by  this  belief?     He 
that  believes  that  He  is  the  Son  of  God,  that  He  is  our  Re- 
deemer, that  He  laid  down  his  life  for  us,  doubtless  honors 
him  more ;  for  this  is  properly  what  He  will  have  us  believe. 
Or,  as  others  say,  shall  Christ's  flesh  communicate  itself  to 
our  souls  ?     Or  shall  it  communicate  itself  to  our  bodies  ? 
Shall  it,  as  a  proper  body,  be  absorbed  into  this  one,  or  into 


GERMAN   REFORMED   CHURCH.  283 

that  one  ?  But  the  one  of  these  is  quite  as  absurd  and  as 
impossible  as  the  other.  This,  at  least,  he  proves  irresistibly, 
that,  if  the  former  were  even  possible,  the  soul  could  still 
derive  no  benefit  from  this  flesh,  which  faith  in  general,  or  a 
spiritual  participation,  does  not  afford  more  certainly  and 
quite  as  fully :  and  now,  after  proving  this,  he  first  makes  use 
of  Christ's  own  assurance,  The  flesh  profiteth  nothing  ;  makes 
use  even  of  the  very  construction  put  upon  these  words  by 
Luther  himself.  'Be  it  so,'  he  says,  'that  Christ  declared, 
not  his  flesh,  but  the  fleshy  interpretation  of  his  preceding 
words,  profitless ;  but  what  then  was  this  fleshy  interpretation  ? 
It  was,  surely,  just  this,  that  the  Jews  thought  of  a  bodily  eating 
of  his  flesh ;  and  in  this  it  was  that  he  corrected  them ;  and 
this  very  interpretation,  therefore,  is  what  he  rejects.  Since, 
therefore,  Christ  himself  assures  us  that  the  bodily  eating  of 
his  flesh  would  be  useless,  in  whatever  sense  his  words  be 
taken ;  since  inexplicable  contradictions  in  suflBcient  number 
forbid  us  to  admit  a  bodily  presence ;  since,  moreover,  it  con- 
flicts with  other  doctrines  of  the  Bible,  even  with  articles  of 
faith ;  and,  finally,  since  it  was  never  received  in  the  primitive 
church,  we  certainly  have  reasons  enough,  and  strong  enough, 
to  question  and  to  reject  it.' 

"  This  work  Oecolampadius  sent  to  several  Suabian  divines, 
of  whom  John  Brentz,  preacher  at  Salle,  and  Ehrhard  Snepf, 
preacher  at  Wimpfen,  had  already  attained  an  honorable  dis- 
tinction. Having  been  a  long  time  on  terms  of  intimacy  with 
these  divines,  he  conceived  it  the  more  a  duty  to  submit  to 
them  particularly  the  reasons  that  had  moved  him  to  adopt 
the  new  opinion,  against  which  some  of  them  had  already 
declared  themselves.  He,  therefore,  dedicated  the  work  to 
them,  and  requested  them  to  give  it  a  rigid  examination,  but 
entreated  them  also  to  conduct  their  scrutiny  in  such  a  manner, 
that  the  harmony  and  love  that  had  subsisted  between  them 
should  not  be  disturbed.  On  his  part,  he  assured  them  this 
kind  feeling  would  continue,  notwithstanding  the  difference  of 
opinion  ;  for  he  was  persuaded  that  an  error  of  judgment  would 
not  be  imputed  as  a  sin,  whereas  the  evils  of  discord  could 


284  HISTORY   OF   THE 

never  be  repaired.  This  entreaty  and  this  assurance,  how- 
ever, came,  alas  !  too  late ;  for  the  difference  of  opinion  had 
already  too  much  alienated  men's  minds  from  one  another. 
The  pernicious  acrimony  in  Avhich  the  controversy  had  been 
commenced,  infected  all  who,  with  or  without  cause,  had  taken 
any  part  in  it.  It  had  already  extended  from  Saxony  into 
jSuabia,  and  now  exhibited,  in  the  divines  of  this  country,  an 
influence  moderated,  indeed,  but,  nevertheless,  mournfully 
visible.  These  men,  the  majority  of  whom  were  truly  both 
pious  and  learned  ;  of  whom  the  major  part,  agreeably  to  their 
own  acknowledgment,  had  hitherto  revered  Oecolampadius  as 
a  father,  treated  him  now  in  their  answer,  sometimes,  at  least, 
with  a  very  unfriendly  harshness.  Their  answer,  written  by 
Brentz,  was  subscribed  by  him  and  thirteen  others,  on  the 
21st  of  October,  1525,  and  published  about  the  same  time, 
under  the  title  of  Syngramma. 

"  This  celebrated  refutation  has,  by  the  force  of  circum- 
stances, acquired  an  importance  that  ranks  it  as  one  of  the 
principal  writings  in  this  controversy.  After  various  turns  in 
the  strife,  it  came  to  pass  that  both  of  the  contending  parties 
professed,  in  all  seriousness,  to  find  their  own  theory  main- 
tained in  this  work ;  and  the  adversaries  of  the  bodily  presence 
even  alleged  the  authority  of  the  Suabian  divines  against  its 
advocates.  They  did  them  the  honor  to  suppose  that  they 
had  misapprehended  Zwingle  and  Oecolampadius,  and  had, 
therefore,  taken  the  opinion  of  these  reformers  under  their 
own  protection  against  them;  they  pledged  themselves  to 
prove,  at  least,  that  it  was  not  the  intention  of  these  divines 
to  advocate  that  kind  of  bodily  presence  which  was  afterwards 
received.  The  secondary  strife  which  thence  arose  is  so 
blended  with  the  history  of  the  main  controversy,  that  the 
latter  receives  no  little  light  from  a  closer  elucidation  of  the 
former ;  on  wliich  account,  this  writing,  which  occasioned  it, 
deserves  a  more  critical,  but  also  a  more  impartial,  examina- 
tion than  it  has  hitherto  received.  There  is  need  only  of  such 
an  examination  to  make  it  strikingly  evident  that  Brentz  and 
his  associates  perfectly  apprehended  the  meaning  of  their 


GERMAN   REFORMED   CHURCH.  285 

antagonist,  and  had  no  other  design  than  to  maintain  against 
him  the  bodily  presence  of  the  true  flesh  of  Christ  in  the 
Lord's  supper:  but  there  is  need,  also,  of  nothing  else  to 
make  it  equally  evident,  that  they  would  not,  and  even  the 
reason  why  they  would  not,  go  as  far  in  their  defence  as  it 
was  afterwards  deemed  necessary  to  go.  By  this  the  Syn- 
gramma,  viewed  only  as  a  didactic  work,  obtains  a  value  which 
belongs  to  few  of  the  countless  number  of  others  that  soon 
followed ;  but  by  this,  also,  viewed  as  a  controversial  work,  it 
becomes  more  insignificant  and  unsatisfactory  than  any  that 
preceded  or  followed  it.  This  cannot  be  demonstrated  more 
conclusively  than  by  placing  it  beside  the  answer  which  Oeco- 
lampadius  published  in  the  following  year."* 

After  a  flourish'  about  their  holy  zeal  for  divine  truth,  the 
authors  of  the  Syngramma  urge  how  suspicious  the  opposers 
of  the  bodily  presence  rendered  their  cause,  at  the  threshold, 
by  the  diversity  of  their  several  modes  of  interpreting  the 
words  of  institution :  "  There  are  but  three  words,  they  say, 
about  which  we  contend,  and  they  have  already  given  birth 
to  three  sects  ;"  having  reference  to  the  interpretations  of 
Carlstadt,  Zwingle,  and  Oecolampadius ;  and  now,  as  if  to 
fret  their  antagonist,  at  the  outset,  by  an  insult,  they  indulge 
in  the  coarse  remark :  "  Take  heed,  Oecolampadius,  lest  some 
busy-body  should  sing  out  the  apothegm  :  Lies  do  not  hold 
together."  To  his  observation  that  his  interpretation  and 
Zwingle's  differ  only  in  form,  while  they  yield  the  same  sense, 
they  reply  by  the  foolish  comparison  of  misers  who  employ 
different  modes  of  raking  up  and  hoarding  money ;  one  by 
theft,  another  by  deceit ;  one  by  sordid  parsimony,  another 
by  base  compliances  ;  but  all  by  bad  means,  and  for  a  bad 
end.  In  such  a  spirit  did  they  meet  the  bland,  respectful, 
and  dignified  manner  of  their  worthy  opponent !  "  What,"  says 
professor  Plank,  "could  Oecolampadius  expect  from  such  ad- 
versaries, who  dipped  even  their  pointless  arrows,  which  surely 
could  not  wound  him,  not  in  poison,  indeed,  but  yet  in  gall  ? 

*  Plank,  vol.  ii.  p.  274-284. 


286  HISTORY   OF   THE 

He  did  not,  however,  even  permit  himself  to  ridicule  their 
blunt  missiles,  but  showed  with  calmness  how  childishly  wrong 
their  conclusion  was."*  Their  own  idea  of  the  presence  of 
Christ  in  the  sacrament,  expressed  in  their  own  words,  is  thus 
given  by  professor  Plank  : 

"  Oecolampadius  had  adduced  a  passage  from  Augustine,  in 
which  that  father  called  the  bread  in  the  supper  a  figure  or 
sign  of  the  body  of  Christ,  as  he  had  previously  called  the 
brazen  serpent.  Now,  say  the  authors  of  the  Syngramma, 
although  Augustine  calls  the  bread  a  figure,  he  does  not 
therein  deny  that  it  is  the  body  of  Christ ;  for  the  serpent, 
also,  which  he  calls  by  the  same  name,  he  still  admits  to  be  a 
serpent.  On  the  contrary,  this  comparison  of  the  brazen  ser- 
pent serves  excellently  to  show  what  the  bread  in  the  Lord's 
supper  is.  For,  what  is  this  serpent  ?  Is  it  a  mere  serpent  ? 
Or  is  it  a  mere  sign  ?  By  no  means.  It  is  both  a  serpent  and 
a  sign  of  salvation.  But  whence  has  it  this  property  of  being 
a  sign  of  salvation  ?  Is  it  hence,  because  it  is  a  serpent  ?  Or 
because  it  is  brazen  ?  No  !  but  because  it  has  the  words : 
"Whosoever  shall  look  upon  it  shall  live.  By  virtue  of  these 
words,  the  serpent  becomes  what  the  word  is.  It  remains,  in 
the  mean  time,  a  serpent,  and  brazen,  and  a  sign,  but  heals 
also.  So  must  we  say,  also,  of  the  bread  in  the  Lord's  supper; 
for,  however  hard  it  is  baked  in  the  oven,  and  however  cer- 
tainly it  be  appointed  only  for  the  sustenance  of  the  body,  it 
becomes,  nevertheless,  precisely  what  the  word  is  that  comes 
to  it.  That  word  is  :  This  is  my  body  which  is  given  for  you. 
Now,  if  the  word  imparts,  or  brings  to  the  serpent  a  healing 
property,  why  should  not  the  word  in  the  Lord's  supper  bring 
with  it  the  Lord's  body  into  the  bread  ?  For,  as  the  healing 
property  of  the  serpent  was  in  the  word  that  came  to  it,  so  is 
the  Lord's  body  in  the  word  of  the  supper.  Therefore, 
although  Augustine  calls  the  bread  a  perishable  sign,  he  yet 
does  not  thereby  deny  that  it  is  the  body  of  Christ ;  just  as  he 
does  not  deny  that  the  serpent  possesses  a  healing  property ; 

*  Plank,  vol.  ii.  p.  285,  note  142. 


GERMAN   REFORMED   CHURCH.  287 

not,  indeed,  because  it  is  a  serpent,  but  because  it  lias  the 
word, 

"  "We  -will  now  explain  to  you  what  sort  of  miracle  we  admit 
in  the  Lord's  supper.  You,  doubtless,  believe  that  Christ  is 
not  only  true,  but  truth  itself ;  for  he  says,  '  I  am  the  way, 
the  truth,  and  the  life.'  Now,  when  he  said  to  the  palsied 
man,  or  to  the  woman  that  was  a  sinner,  '  Thy  sins  be  forgiven 
thee,'  was  not  the  forgiveness  of  sins  included  in  this  one  brief 
word,  and  conveyed,  as  it  were,  to  the  sick  of  the  palsy  and 
to  the  sinner  ?  Further,  when  he  told  his  apostles  to  invoke 
peace  upon  the  house  into  which  they  would  enter,  did  not 
these  words,  'Peace  be  upon  this  house,'  really  include  that 
peace  in  them,  and  bring  it  to  the  inhabitants  of  that  house  ? 
What  reasonable  man  can  deny  this  ?  Again,  when  he  says, 
'  I  am  the  resurrection  and  the  life,'  is  not  real  resurrection  and 
life  communicated  to  him  who  hears  the  words  ?  So,  also, 
when  God  says,  'lam  the  Lord  thy  God,'  does  not  God  in 
that  word  communicate  himself  and  all  his  gifts  ?  Now,  in  the 
same  manner,  when  Christ  says,  '  My  body  is  given  for  you 
and  my  blood  is  shed  for  you,'  has  he  not,  as  it  were,  included 
in  this  word  his  body  and  blood,  so  that  every  one  who  appre- 
hends and  -believes  this  word,  apprehends,  and  receives,  and 
has,  and  holds  the  true  body  and  the  true  blood  of  Christ  ? 
that  blood,  namely,  which  was  shed  for  us  ?  consequently  not 
spiritual,  but  material  blood  ?  for  it  was  not  spiritual,  but 
material  blood  that  was  shed  for  us.  Now,  if  the  word  is  so 
eflScacious  as  to  bring  the  true  material  body  and  the  true 
material  blood  of  Christ  to  us,  why  should  it  not  be  so  effica- 
cious as  to  bring  them  also  to  the  bread  and  wine  ? 

"  This  passage,  strange  as  it  may  sound,  is  one  of  the 
clearest  in  which  the  authors  set  forth  their  notion  of  the 
bodily  presence :  the  reader  thinks,  too,  that  he  sees  already 
what  they  properly,  aim  at :  but,  to  be  perfectly  just  toward 
them,  we  will  connect  with  it  another,  from  which  their  idea 
will  receive  all  the  light  of  which  it  is  susceptible. 

"You  believe,  surely,  they  say,  and  there  is  none  so  un- 
godly as  not  to  confess,  that  faith  eats  the  body  of  Christ 


288  HISTORY   OF   THE 

spiritually  and  drinks  his  blood  spiritually  in  the  act  of 
believing,  as  Christ  speaks,  John  vi.  Now,  if  faith  eats  and 
drinks  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ,  the  body  and  blood  of 
Christ  must  surely  be  present  to  faith ;  and,  if  they  were  not 
present,  we  could  not  cat  and  drink  them,  nor  believe  in  them. 
To  believe  in  God,  which  is  called  a  spiritual  eating,  is  possible 
to  none,  except  God  be  present  to  him.  To  the  ungodly  and 
unbelieving,  he  is  not  present ;  wherefore,  also,  they  do  not 
eat  him,  that  is,  do  not  believe  in  him.  In  short,  as  faith,  by 
believing  in  God,  has  God  present  to  it,  so  must  it  also  have 
the  body  and  blood  of  Christ  present,  if  it  is  to  eat  and  drink 
his  body  and  blood.  But  what  makes  God  present  to  faith  ? 
(We  speak  not  of  that  presence  by  which  he  fills  all  things, 
but  of  that  by  which  he  is  present  to  the  pious.)  The  word 
does  this ;  for,  as  he  is  revealed  by  the  word,  so  is  he  also 
exhibited  as  present  by  the  word.  As  John  says,  'No  man 
hath  ever  seen  God:  the  Son  (the  same  is  the  word)  hath 
revealed  him  ;'  and  in  another  place,  '  Whosoever  seeth  me, 
seeth  the  Father  ;'  that  is.  Whoever  has,  keeps,  and  believes 
the  word,  the  same  has,  keeps,  and  believes  in  God :  for  God 
can  be  present  to  faith  only  by  the  word.  But  now,  if  the 
word  makes  God  with  all  his  gifts  present  to  faith,  why  should 
the  word  not  do  exactly  the  same  with  the  body  and  the  blood 
of  Christ?  John  says,  'The  blood  of  Christ  cleanseth  us  from 
all  sin.'  If  his  blood  cleanseth  us  from  sin,  it  must  be  present; 
for  an  absent  thing  could  not  cleanse  us  :  but  nothing  except 
the  word  could  make  his  blood  present  to  us. 

"With  this  passage,"  continues  the  same  historian,  "con- 
nect only  one  short  one  more,  that  will  make  their  true  mean- 
ing, or  the  confusion  of  their  ideas — of  necessity  one  or  the 
other — still  more  evident."  We  do  not  here  trifle  with  Aristotle, 
say  they,  who  asserts  that  words  are  only  the  signs  of  things 
that  are  in  the  soul ;  but,  that  we  may  speak  more  truly,  we 
say  that  a  word  presents,  brings,  and  places  before  us  the 
thing  itself  that  is  in  the  soul,  and  still  retains  its  nature  as  a 
word.  Hence,  when  we  have  apprehended  the  words  of  an 
author,  it  is  usual    to  say,    This  is  the   author's   meaning. 


GERMAN   REFORMED   CHURCH.  289 

Who  could  endure  to  hear  it  said,  This  is  a  sign  of  the 
author's  meaning?  If  a  man,  now,  be  able  to  include  his 
mind  and  his  meaning  in  a  word,  why,  then,  should  not  Christ 
be  able  to  include  his  body  and  blood  in  the  word  and  dis- 
tribute the  same  together  with  bread  and  wine  ? 

"  It  is  now  very  possible  to  be  still  uncertain  about  their 
real  meaning,  not,  indeed,  because  no  meaning  at  all  has  been 
found,  but  because  it  is  hard  to  believe  that  the  meaning  found 
is  that  which  the  authors  of  the  Syngramma  really  intended. 
Clear  as  the  light  of  day  does  it  seem  at  first  view,  that  their 
meaning  scarcely  differs  a  hair's  breadth  from  that  of  their 
opponent — scarcely,  even,  in  terms ;  and  with  perfect  justice 
do  they  seem  to  have  been  accused  with  not  understanding 
him.  Oecolampadius  said.  The  flesh  of  Christ  is  not  hoelili/ 
present,  but  is  participated  spiritually  by  faith  ;  and  he  thus 
admitted  that  it  was  present  to  faith.  They,  on  the  contrary, 
maintained  that  it  was  bodily  present,  but,  nevertheless,  pre- 
sent, also,  only  to  faith.  One  mode  of  presence  only  could 
be  admitted;  but  the  authors  of  the  Syngramma  seemed 
expressly  to  say  that  they  meant  to  assert  no  other  than  the 
only  one  which  their  opponent  could  here  conceive.  Even  as 
God  himself,  with  all  his  gifts,  said  they,  is  presented  to  faith 
by  the  word,  so,  also,  in  the  Lord's  supper,  are  his  body  and 
blood  caused  to  be  present  in  the  bread  and  wine  by  the  word 
of  institution :  and  such  a  bodily  presence  Oecolampadius  and 
Zwingle  could  grant,  as  they  subsequently  did :  for  the  word 
bodily  was  of  little  import  when  it  was  once  understood  that 
no  other  presence  could  subsist  than  a  presence  to  faith.  The 
term  bodily  presence,  now  meant  no  more  than  the  presence 
of  a  body ;  but  this  body  would  now  be  in  the  bread  as  for- 
giveness of  sins  was  in  the  declaration,  Thy  sins  be  forgiven 
thee  ;  it  would,  therefore,  be  present  only  to  the  soul  and  to 
faith,  and  only  in  that  manner  in  which  a  corporeal  thing  in 
general  could  be  present  to  them.  If  this  was  the  real 
opinion  of  the  Suabian  divines,  they  might,  to  be  sure,  have 
spared  themselves  the  pains  of  writing  the  Syngramma  ;  for, 
in  this  case,  they  were  contending  about  a  mere  word :  but, 
Z  37 


290  HISTORY   OF   THE 

in  this  case  it  must  be  granted,  too,  that  tliey  understood  nei- 
ther their  opponent  nor  themselves  ;  for  they  would  otherwise 
not  have  contradicted  themselves  in  this  work,  times  without 
number.  This,  however,  cannot  reasonably  be  even  con- 
jectured, inasmuch  as  they  too  often  declare  themselves  defi- 
nitely upon  this  point.  But  now  there  remains  but  one 
meaning  that  can  be  assigned  to  their  words.  If  they  did 
not  intend  to  maintain  precisely  what  Oecolampadius  main- 
tained ;  if,  by  that  singular  sequence, — The  body  of  Christ  is 
brought  to  us  by  the  word,  therefore  it  is  also  brought  by  it 
to  the  bread, — they  intended  to  maintain  the  presence  of  the 
essential  flesh  of  Christ  in  the  bread  of  the  sacrament,  they 
must  then  necessarily  admit,  though  they  nowhere  plainly 
declare  it,  that  the  body  of  Christ  was  essentially  in  the  word, 
and  they  must  then  ascribe  to  the  word  a  power  which  nobody 
had  yet  imagined.  And  is  it  even  conceivable  that  this  was 
really  their  opinion  ?  Be  it  conceivable  or  not,  it  is,  never- 
theless, certain,  that  they  really  intended  to  insinuate  such 
an  idea ;  and  in  the  end  it  becomes  manifest  that  they  had 
their  reasons  for  so  doing.  It  can  now  no  longer  be  said  that 
they  contended  about  a  word ;  but  now,  also,  it  can  be  less 
denied  that  they  could  not  have  propounded  their  opinion 
more  confusedly,  nor  defended  it  in  a  more  slovenly  manner. 
For  who  does  not  perceive  that  all  the  examples  by  which 
they  sought  to  illustrate  or  to  prove  their  notion  of  a  bodily 
presence,  either  prove  nothing  at  all,  or  prove  and  illustrate 
only  what  their  antagonist  maintained."* 

"  In  noticing  the  most  important  of  their  replies  to  the  ar- 
guments of  Oecolampadius,  it  is  due  that  we  should  observe 
an  instance  of  the  honesty  of  the  authors  of  the  Syngramma, 
that  must  have  cost  them  some  self-denial.  They  granted  to 
their  antagonist  not  only  a  circumstance  from  which  he  had 
drawn  the  most  plausible  of  his  objections  against  the  literal 
signification  of  the  words  of  institution,  but  they  granted  even 
more  than  he  seemed  to  desire.     They  conceded  that,  at  the 

*  Plank,  vol.  ii.  p.  284-292. 


GERMAN   REFORMED    CHURCH.  291 

anstitution  of  the  sacrament,  the  apostles  had  given  no  indi- 
cation of  unusual  Tvondcr ;  but  this,  they  saj,  ouf^ht  not  to 
surprise  us,  since  it  is  probable  that  the  apostles  understood 
as  little  what  Christ  meant  by  the  words,  This  is  my  body 
which  is  given  for  you,  as  they  had  previously  understood  of 
his  prediction  of  his  approaching  death.  By  this  concession, 
they  granted,  that,  in  partaking  of  the  "bread,  the  apostles 
certainly  had  not  the  remotest  thought  of  eating  the  Lord's 
body.  And  now  their  antagonist  might  have  pressed  them 
farther  with  the  conclusions  he  had  already  drawn  from  that 
circumstance,  if  he  had  chosen  to  improve  his  advantage.  But 
Oecolampadius  was  magnanimous,  and  contented  himself  with 
assuring  them  that  the  silence  of  the  apostles  would  be  no 
slight  evidence  against  their  conception,  were  it  necessary  to 
shed  more  light  upon  its  incorrectness. 

"But  his  antagonists  were  not  so  magnanimous  when  they 
came  to  the  place  where  he  sought  to  prove  the  scriptural  use 
of  the  metaphor  which  he  aflSrmed  to  be  contained  in  the  words 
of  institution.  They  probably  thought  they  had  here  found 
his  weak  side ;  for  they  did  not  suffer  themselves  to  be  at  all 
diverted  from  it  again,  until  they  had  deprived  him  of  all  his 
examples  :  his  rock,  his  pasha,  his  Elias,  his  keys  of  the  king- 
dom of  heaven— all  were,  one  after  the  other,  rendered  un- 
serviceable, while  the  authors  proved  that  the  one  contained 
no  trope,  and  in  the  other  the  trope  was  inappropriate.  It  is 
undeniable  that,  with  regard  to  some  of  the  examples,  they 
proved  this  with  handsome  skill  in  the  art  of  demonstration ; 
but  that  they  did  the  same  with  regard  to  all,  this — who  would 
not  believe  it  in  advance  ? — this  could  prove  itself  only  the 
undertaking  of  a  thankless  toil :  and  such  it  was  in  a  twofold 
view ;  for,  granting  that  they  had  demolished  all  these  out- 
works,  little  or  nothing  was  yet  achieved,  inasmuch  as  his 
main  work  continued  still  uninjured,  and  was  as  safe  from  in- 
jury as  before. 

"The  advocates  of  a  tropical  sense  of  the  words  of  institu- 
tion had  declared,  at  the  beginning  of  the  controversy,  that 
they  never  thought  of  deriving  their  proper  grounds  of  belief 


292  HISTORY   OP   THE 

from  examples  of  similar  phrases  in  the  Scriptures.  '"We 
adopt  a  tropical  interpretation,'  said  they,  'because,  agreeably 
to  the  nature  of  the  subject,  the  design  of  Christ,  and  the  con- 
nection of  his  discourse,  a  literal  interpretation  is  inadmissible, 
and  not  because  the  Scripture  uses  tropical  phrases  elsewhere. 
Our  interpretation  may  appear  the  more  natural,  the  more 
frequently  examples  of  the  same  trope  occur ;  but  its  correct- 
ness we  do  not  base  upon  those  examples  ;  for  we  would  not 
grant  that  it  is  incorrect,  though  no  other  example  should  be 
found  in  the  Scriptures.'  This  Zwingle  had  already  said; 
this  Oecolampadius  said,  still  more  impressively,  in  this  work ; 
and,  if  they  had  not  themselves  declared  it,  this  must  have 
been  evident  to  their  adversaries,  from  the  point  of  view 
in  which  they  had  so  intentionally  placed  the  controverted 
question.  Yet  these  adversaries  constantly  turned  to  this 
side,  lingered  longest  here,  and,  as  often  as  they  had  removed 
one  of  these  pebbles,  assumed,  without  reserve,  an  air  of  tri- 
umph, as  if  every  thing  had  now  been  achieved.  It  was  a  hard 
trial  of  patience  for  the  men  with  whom  they  had  to  do,  to  be 
compelled  to  witness  this  tedious  game ;  but  to  be  compelled, 
for  the  most  part,  to  witness  how,  notwithstanding  all  their 
declarations,  they  were,  still  made  to  say  what  they  had  never 
thought,  and  to  think  what  they  had  never  dreamed,  what 
patience  could  have  borne  this  ? 

"Was  it  possible,  for  example,  that  Oecolampadius  could 
remain  quite  composed,  when  the  authors  of  the  Syngramma 
told  him,  publicly,  that  he  had  attempted  to  prove  the  neces- 
sity of  admitting  a  trope  in  the  words  of  institution  because 
tropes  occur  in  other  passages  of  the  Bible  ?  When  they 
scornfully  asked  him,  how  he  would  like  the  conclusion, — The 
raven  is  black,  therefore  the  swan  is  black  also  ?  When  they 
accused  him  of  having  reasoned  in  the  same  way,  and  then 
appealed  to  his  conscience,  demanding  how  he  could  presume 
thus  to  pervert  the  Scriptures?  All  the  world,  and  they 
themselves  knew,  that  Oecolampadius  had  never  thought  of 
reasoning  thus.  What  other  design,  then,  could  they  have, 
but  to  irritate  him  ?     But  the  truly  meek  man  scarcely  suf- 


GERMAN   REFORMED    CHURCH.  293 

fered  his  placid  mind  to  be  ruffled.  '  Who  argues  thus  ?'  says 
he,  in  his  reply.  '  We  reason  very  diflFerently.'  More  he 
would  not  say  on  that  subject ;  but  the  presumption  of  these 
men,  who  boasted  still  of  their  'unction,'  he  could  not  suffer 
to  pass  without  some  castigation :  'We  do  not  teach  any  one,' 
he  adds,  'to  rend  the  Scriptures,  good  men,  as  we  are  unjustly 
charged ;  but  we  desire  to  handle  them  in  a  worthy  manner. 
Whatsoever  kind  of  unction  it  is  that  instructs  you  otherwise, 
the  anointing  of  the  Holy  Spirit  is  satisfied  with  trust  in 
Christ,  and  does  not  so  much  covet  the  flesh.' 

"But  his  equanimity,  though  not  his  meekness,  left  him 
where  they  made  use  of  the  same  conclusion,  which  they  had 
invented  for  him,  to  make  his  opinion  as  odious  as  possible  by 
the  pernicious  consequences  that  might  ensue  from  such  a 
mode  of  reasoning.  It  was  still  the  same  childish  conclusion, 
when  they  said,  'If  we  understand  by  the  word  hocli/  the 
figure  of  a  body,  we  may  also  understand  by  the  word  Son  of 
Crod  the  figure  of  a  Son  of  God ;  therefore  the  former  cannot 
be  admitted.'  Could  not  Oecolampadius  ask  them  again  in 
their  own  words.  What  sort  of  logic  is  this  ?  If  the  bread  in 
the  Lord's  supper  be  a  figure  of  the  body  of  Christ,  must, 
therefore,  Christ  also  be  only  a  figure  of  the  Son  of  God  ? 
Who  has  ever  asked  whether  the  swan  must  be  black  because 
the  raven  is  so  ?  But  his  adversaries  did  not  content  them- 
selves with  only  asserting  the  possibility  that  some  might 
reason  in  this  manner,  and  thereby  representing  to  him  the 
dangerous  tendency  of  his  opinion;  but  they  assured  him, 
with  all  seriousness,  that  the  devil  was  actually  seeking  to 
bring  doubt  and  uncertainty  upon  all  the  other  articles  of 
faith  by  the  new  interpretation  of  the  words  of  institution. 
'We  are  alarmed,'  say  they,  'when  we  think  of  the  devil's 
malice.  If  he  circumvents  us  with  this  error  of  making  the 
body  of  Christ  a  figure  of  his  body,  we  shall  soon  see  Avhat 
blasphemies  he  will  dish  up  in  the  world.  What  he  has  insti- 
gated in  the  revolt  of  the  peasantry  under  the  pretext  of  the 
gospel,  he  now,  also,  intends  by  the  words  of  the  Lord's 
supper.     If  his  attempt  should  succeed  to  wrest  from  us  the 


294  HISTORY   OF   THE 

true  body  of  Christ  by  the  word,  The  bread  is  a  figure  of  his 
body,  he  would  not  rest  here ;  he  would  go  farther,  and  seek 
to  make  of  the  word  j^eace  a  figure  of  peace,  and  of  the  word 
forgiveness  of  sins  a  sign  of  forgiveness.' 

"  It  was,  to  be  sure,  the  custom  of  the  theologians  of  this 
age  to  attribute  every  opinion  that  differed  from  their  own  to 
the  devil,  and  to  consider  it  then  sufficiently  refuted ;  and 
such  an  expression  in  the  mouth  of  an  antagonist  was  not 
considered  particularly  affronting ;  but  the  honest,  often  scru- 
pulously pious,  Oecolampadius  felt  it  the  more,  because  it 
came  from  men  of  whose  friendshp,  as  well  as  their  piety,  he 
had  hitherto  never  doubted."* 

To  the  argument  of  Oecolampadius,  that,  if  the  body  of 
Christ  were  essentially  in  the  bread,  it  would  follow  that  the 
same  body  could  be  in  different  places  at  the  same  time,  and 
that  two  bodies  could  at  the  same  time  occupy  the  same  place, 
they  answered :  "  We  do  not  let  this  trouble  us.  Aristotle  is 
of  no  authority  with  us  here,  Avhatever  he  may  have  taught 
of  the  properties  of  bodies  ;  but  Christ  is  our  teacher.  If  it 
is  not  incongruous  that  the  body  of  Christ  is  borne  in  the 
word,  why  should  it  be  incongruous  that  he  is  borne  and  com- 
prehended in  the  bread ?"  "If  these  words  mean  any  thing," 
says  professor  Plank,  "  the  authors  must  necessarily  have 
admitted  that  the  body  of  Christ  is  contained  in  the  bread  in 
no  other  sense  than  as  it  is  contained  in  the  word.  But  let 
us  hear  them  farther.  '  It  is  quite  as  incomprehensible  that 
God,  with  all  his  gifts,  should  become  present  to  the  believer 
by  the  word,  I  am  thy  God ;  and  yet  it  is  true.  Here  the 
sophists  might  object  that  we  believe  in  letters  and  syllables, 
as  they  say  in  the  sacrament  we  believe  in  bread.  We  let 
this  pass  by  us,  knowing  very  well  that  letters  and  syllables 
are  dead ;  but  they,  nevertheless,  bring  us  life  and  the  power 
of  God :  knowing  very  well  that  bread  is  bread,  but  it  brings 
with  it,  nevertheless,  the  body  of  Christ.'  'Neither  does  it 
follow,'  say  they,  in  answer  to   another   objection,  '  Avhen  we 

*  Plank,  vol.  ii.  p.  29T-'302. 


GERMAN   REFORMED    CHURCH.  295 

confess  that  the  bread  is  the  body  of  Christ,  that  Christ  must, 
therefore,  descend  upon  the  earth  again,  either  in  his  humble 
or  in  his  glorified  state.  We  are  not  so  doltish,  although  iu 
simplicity  we  believe  his  words.  He  has  now  performed  his 
part,  has  suffered  and  taken  possession  of  heaven  and  of  his 
kingdom  :  there  we  leave  him  ;  but  his  body  wc  distribute  in 
the  bread,  inasmuch  as  he  has  deposited  it  in  the  bread  by 
the  word,  just  as  forgiveness  of  sins  is  distributed  by  the  word, 
without  necessitating  himself  to  come  from  heaven  again.' 
'  Still  less  is  it  to  be  apprehended  that,  if  the  bread  be  the 
body  of  Christ,  the  same  things  must  happen  to  the  body  that 
happen  to  the  bread ;  that  it  must,  like  the  bread,  have  shape, 
be  consumed,  be  digested,  &;c.  Far  be  it  from  us  that  we 
should  believe  this.  But,  as  the  word  of  God  abides  for  ever, 
and  is  not  confined  by  time,  or  space,  or  other  limits,  so  does 
the  body  which  is  contained  in  the  bread  abide.  We  say  that 
the  bread  is  the  body  of  Christ,  not  so  far  as  it  is  bread,  but 
so  far  as  it  has  the  word  with  it ;  otherwise,  to  be  sure,  the 
same  would  happen  to  it  that  happens  to  the  bread.  We, 
therefore,  beseech  you  to  judge  us  only  according  to  our 
explanation,  when  we  say  that  we  eat  the  body  of  Christ 
carnally :  for  we  eat  the  body  and  drink  the  blood  of  Christ 
carnally,  not  that  the  body  itself  is  broken  or  masticated  by 
us ;  we  break,  eat,  and  masticate  the  bread,  so  far  as  it  is 
bread,  but  the  body  we  receive,  so  far  as  we  receive  the  word. 
This  is  my  body.  Therefore,  what  we  eat  enters  into  the  belly, 
but  what  we  believe  enters  into  the  soul.'  "* 

Such,  then,  was  the  notion  of  the  bodily  presence  of  Christ 
in  the  elements  of  the  Lord's  supper,  which  the  authors  of  the 
Syngramma  thought  proper  to  defend  in  this  labored  produc- 
tion. The  body  and  blood  of  Christ  are  contained  in  the 
words.  This  is  my  body,  This  is  my  blood ;  for  words  arc  not 
mere  signs  of  thoughts,  or  of  things,  but  actually  contain  and 
convey  to  us  the  things  which  they  signify.  The  body  and 
blood  of  Christ  are  conveyed  by  the  words  of  institution  to  the 

*  Plank,  vol.  ii.  p.  303-305. 


296  HISTORY   OF   THE 

bread  aud  mne  when  they  are  spoken  to  these  elements,  and 
are,  therefore,  contained  in  them  as  they  are  in  the  words, 
and  are  eaten  and  drunk  in  them  by  the  communicants.  They 
are,  however,  present  only  to  the  faith  of  the  recipients,  when 
they  believe  the  words,  This  is  my  body,  This  is  my  blood ; 
that  is,  when  they  believe  that  they  are  really  present  in  the 
bread  and  wine  by  virtue  of  these  words.  It  is,  consequently, 
only  the  believing  communicant  that  receives  the  body  and 
blood  of  Christ ;  the  unbeliever  receives  mere  bread  and  wine. 
The  body  and  blood  of  Christ,  that  are  received  in  the  sacra- 
ment, are,  nevertheless,  his  material  body  and  his  material 
blood ;  the  same  body  that  was  crucified,  and  the  same  blood 
that  was  shed  in  his  death,  that  revived,  and  rose,  and  is  now 
at  the  right  hand  of  God.  They  are  not  eaten  spiritually 
only,  but  carnally ;  not  tropically,  but  literally ;  yet  so  that 
they  enter  as  a  spiritual  food  into  the  soul,  while  the  bread 
and  wine  pass,  as  a  natural  food,  into  the  body.  We  literally 
eat  a  material  body,  and  drink  material  blood ;  yet  not  as 
material  but  as  spiritual  food.  We  eat  and  drink  them  car- 
nally, but  are  not  thereby  carnally  aflfected ;  and  this  carnal 
eating  is  done  by  faith. 

The  manifest  object  of  these  divines  was,  to  place  Luther's 
doctrine  of  the  real  bodily  presence  upon  tenable  ground,  and 
there  to  fortify  it  against  the  dangerous  assaults  of  its  adver- 
saries. For  this  object,  they  wanted  a  material  body  without 
the  properties  of  matter ;  a  body  that  occupied  no  space,  and, 
though  not  properly  omnipresent,  could  be  caused  to  be  pre- 
sent in  any  place  where  it  was  wanted,  and  in  many  places  at 
the  same  time,  by  the  uttering  of  a  word ;  a  body,  moreover, 
that  could  be  eaten,  and  eaten  entire,  without  affecting  the 
senses,  or  being  affected,  like  natural  food,  by  mastication 
and  digestion.  Such  a  body  they  found,  as  they  imagined,  in 
their  singular  conceit  abou?  the  nature  of  words,  and  the  na- 
ture, particularly,  of  the  v,^ords,  This^  is  my  hocli/,  &c.  Pro- 
ceeding from  this  position,  they  bewildered  their  readers,  and 
themselves  too,  in  a  long  labyrinth  of  ingenious  jaro-on, 
through  which  nothing,  surely,  but  the  dire  necessity  of  the 


GERMAN    REFORMED    CHURCH.  297 

case,  could  have  moved  them  to  urge  their  tedious  way. 
They  never  doubted  the  truth  of  the  real  bodily  presence* 
and,  as  truth  is  always  defensible,  they  took  for  granted  that 
this  dogma  could  be  successfully  defended.  Upon  what 
ground  ?  was  the  question.  Let  this  be  found,  and  the  proper 
weapons  will  be  found  also.  Ground  there  must  be,  they 
justly  thought,  upon  which  the  truth  is  based.  But  they 
could  discover  none  so  safe  as  their  position  about  the  nature 
of  words.  This  position,  therefore,  seemed  to  them  as  true 
as  the  dogma  itself  was  true.  •  Here,  consequently,  they  took 
their  stand,  and  exercised  their  utmost  ingenuity  to  invent 
and  point  their  weapons.  They  could  scarcely  avoid  some 
misgivings,  at  least,  that  their  arguments  were  unsound,  and 
therefore  labored  to  supply  the  defect,  and  to  give  them  the 
utmost  possible  efficiency.  If  they  still  felt  that  something 
was  wanting,  they  were  confident,  nevertheless,  that  what 
they  were  defending  was  truth ;  and,  unable  to  frame  better 
arguments  in  its  defence,  they  held  these  the  more  firmly,  and 
valued  them  the  more,  and  even  persuaded  themselves,  ulti- 
mately, that  they  were  sound,  because  their  position  was 
true.  Hence  they  assumed  an  air  of  the  boldest  confidence; 
and,  as  Plank  observes,  "  They  lifted  their  heads  highest,  and 
shouted  loudest,  exactly  where  their  arguments  were  the  most 
futile,  and  their  defence  weakest." 

They  had  now  the  body  of  Christ  with  the  attributes  of  a 
spirit ;  a  material  body  with  none  of  the  properties  of  matter; 
a  body  without  parts,  without  extension  and  solidity,  occupy- 
ing no  space,  invisible,  impalpable,  that  could  be  anywhere 
and  everywhere,  in  every  piece  of  bread,  without  ceasing  to  be 
material,  and  could  be  eaten  without  being  consumed  !  They 
had  what  their  opponents  esteemed  a  mass  of  contradictions, 
but,  in  their  own  estimation,  a  sacred  truth,  the  essence  of  the 
sacrament,  and  a  fundamental  part  of  an  orthodox  faith. 

They  did  not,  however,  go  so  far  as  to  maintain,  what  soon 
afterward  became  the  established  tenet  on  the  subject,  namely, 
that  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ  were  received  and  eaten 
orally,  in  the  same  manner  as  the  bread  and  wine,  and  were 


298  HISTORY   OP   THE 

SO  received  by  all  communicants,  whether  believers  or  un- 
believers. 

It  is  impossible  to  perceive  what  intelligible  idea  these 
writers  could  have  had  of  eating  a  material  body  by  faith, 
other  than  that  of  Zwingle  and  Oecolampadius ;  and  it  is, 
therefore,  not  strange  that  many  of  the  Reformed  divines 
contended,  that  the  authors  of  the  Syngramma  had  misunder- 
stood the  Swiss  reformers,  and,  instead  of  fighting  against 
them,  really  fought  against  their  own  mistakes.  Their  an- 
tagonists themselves  were  often  at  a  loss  to  perceive  a  differ- 
ence, and  asked  them  again  and  again,  with  impatient  wonder, 
"  If  this  be  your  meaning,  are  we  not  agreed  ?  Why,  then, 
are  we  disputing?"  Firmly  as  they  believed  the  dogma  of 
the  bodily  presence,  it  is  evident  that  their  idea  of  it  was  ex- 
tremely obscure  and  confused  ;  and  we  shall  probably  not  be 
much  out  of  the  way  in  saying  that,  on  their  part,  the  contro- 
versy was  pretty  much  a  strife  about  words. 

Oecolampadius  replied  to  these  divines,  in  a  work  entitled, 
"Anti-syngramma,"  which  was  published  in  1526,  together 
with  two  sermons  on  the  Lord's  supper,  and  his  answer  to 
another  antagonist,  Theobald  BilliQanus. 

Before  this  time,  the  flames  of  contention  had  fearfully  in- 
creased both  in  extent  and  in  fierceness.  "As  soon,"  says 
Plank,  "as  the  Syngramma  appeared,  it  was  hailed,  by  the 
party  whom  it  favored,  as  a  work  of  surpassing  excellency ; 
its  authors  were  extolled  as  so  many  Athanasiuses,  who  were 
the  first  to  set  themselves  against  a  heresy  much  more  poison- 
ous than  that  of  Arius ;  and  their  example  aroused,  in  more 
places  than  one,  a  zealous  emulation.  Many  defenders  of  the 
bodily  presence  arose  at  the  same  time,  who  envied  their  repu- 
tation, or  were  sincerely  convinced  that,  in  the  pressing  dan- 
ger in  which  they  beheld  the  church,  too  many  could  not 
hasten  to  her  rescue.  Ail  rushed  almost  exclusively  against 
Oecolampadius,  and  rushed  upon  him  with  a  violence  that 
gave  the  Syngramma,  comparatively,  an  aspect  of  meekness. 
Bilibald  Pirkheimer,  the  refined,  enlightened  Pirkheimer,  the 
friend  of  Luther  and  the  friend  of  Erasmus,  published  an 


GEKMAN   REFORMED   CHURCH.  299 

answer  to  his  Exposition,  "  the  genuine  theological  bitterness 
of  which  could  put  to  shame  the  oldest  polemist  of  the  trade." 
He  identified  Oecolampadius  with  the  infamous  Munzer,  told 
him  that  many  excellent  men  had  seen  in  his  undertakings 
nothing  but  outbreaks  of  Munzer's  spirit,  and  had  blamed  him, 
Pirkhcimer,  with  criminal  delay,  because  he  had  not  yet  broken 
with  such  a  man ;  he  spoke  of  detestable  errors  on  almost 
every  page,  called  him  the  author  of  dissension,  and  even  said, 
"  It  is  indeed  to  be  feared,  that  the  sentence  of  the  blessed 
Paul  will  be  verified  in  you :  It  is  impossible  that  they  who 
were  once  enlightened,  if  they  fall  away,  should  be  again  re- 
newed to  repentance."* 

The  astonished  Oecolampadius  could  not  conceive  whence 
so  mucli  bitterness  could  arise  in  one  so  cultivated  and  other- 
wise so  amiable.  He  looked  and  read,  and  looked  and  read 
again,  unwilling  to  believe  that  he  saw  and  read  aright.  Yet 
it  was  even  so.  It  was  his  friend  ;  it  was  Pirkheimer,  whom 
he  loved,  that  aimed  these  fiery  darts,  and  hurled  them,  dipped 
in  gall  and  poison.  He  replied  quickly,  in  a  Latin  tract,  enti- 
tled, "Answer  to  Pirkheimer,  concerning  the  Eucharist."  It 
was  a  mild  and  dignified  writing.  "  Of  the  spirit  of  this 
answer,"  says  Plank,  "nothing  can  give  us  a  higher  idea  than 
the  fact  that  even  Loscher  calls  it  modest. "f 

Pirkheimer  improved  upon  the  multipresentia  of  the  Syn- 
gramma,  and  asserted  the  proper  ubiquity  of  Christ's  body. 
"Christ,"  he  says,  "is  one  Christ,  not  many,  although  the 
commemoration  of  him  is  celebrated  in  many  places.  He  is, 
however,  present  everywhere.  Neither  is  this  absurd,  though 
it  seems  impossible  to  you.  We  know  that  to  God  all  things 
are  possible  that  seem  impossible  with  men."|  At  the  same 
time  he,  nevertheless,  admitted  that  the  Lord's  body  and  blood 
were  participated  only  in  a  spiritual  manner.  "  I  am  com- 
pelled," he  said,  "  to  repeat  that,  while  we  firmly  believe  that 
the  body  of  Christ  is  really  contained  in  the  bread,  and  his 


*  Plank,  vol.  ii.  p.  311,  &c.  f  Ibid.  p.  312,  note  1G5. 

X  Ibid.  p.  313, 


300  HISTORY   OP   THE 

blood  in  the  mne,  we,  nevertheless,  do  not  cat  and  drmk  them 
othenvise  than  spiritually."* 

Another  of  the  former  friends  of  Oecolampadius,  Theobald 
Billicanus,  preacher  at  Nordlingen,  declared  himself  against 
him,  in  a  letter  addressed  to  Urbanus  llhegius  of  Lindau ; 
and  Urbanus,  in  his  answer,  joined  in  the  same  denunciation. 
Such  was  the  treatment  of  one  of  the  most  pious  and  most 
enlightened  men  of  the  age,  for  no  other  reason  than  that  he 
exposed,  though  with  mildness  and  dignity,  an  error  which 
these  otherwise  worthy  men  held  and  laved. 

"  Other  divines,  who  would  not  trouble  themselves  with 
refutations,  did  what  they  could,  at  least,  to  render  the  new 
opinion  as  odious  as  possible  to  the  multitude.  The  epithet 
Sacramentarians  sounded  already  from  the  pulpits,  and  was 
often  enough  connected,  if  not  interchanged,  with  the  stigma- 
tized name  of  Munzer.  It  was  esteemed  a  duty,  to  which  their 
conscience  impelled  them,  to  arouse  the  secular  government 
against  the  writings,  at  least,  of  the  Swiss  reformers ;  and  in 
some  places  they  prevailed  so  far  as  to  cause  the  circulation 
of  them  to  be  prohibited.  Only  two  or  three  men  in  all 
Grermany  were  wise  enough  to  deplore  the  mischief  that  must 
arise  from  a  controversy  conducted  in  such  a  spirit,  and  honest 
enough  to  give  utterance  to  their  complaints,  and  zealous 
enough  withal  to  exert  themselves,  by  all  practicable  means, 
to  effect  an  accommodation  of  the  strife.  But  their  efforts 
were  fruitless,  "f 

The  divines  of  Strashurg  alone  continued  their  exertions  to 
prevent  a  complete  and  irremediable  separation  of  the  two 
parties.  Bucer  and  Capito  were  the  declared  friends  of  Oeco- 
lampadius, and  were  known,  also,  as  learned  men  and  friends 
of  truth,  whose  uprightness  even  their  adversaries  never  sus- 
pected. They  made  little  account  of  the  bodily  presence,  but 
were  anxiously  attentive  to  the  importance  of  harmony  among 
the  people,  and  of  Christian  kindness  among  the  ministers  of 
the  infant  church,  and  would   cheerfully  have  yielded  their 

*  Plank,  vol.  ii.  p.  313.  f  Ibid.  p.  314. 


GERMAN   RErORMED   CHURCH.  301 

own  opinions  on  the  subject  of  dispute,  if  they  could  thereby 
have  procured  the  church's  peace.  All  their  movements  ■were 
directed  solely  by  their  disinterested  desire  to  heal  the  unhappy 
breach ;  bu^  this  desire  often  rose  to  a  passion,  especially  in 
Bucer,  and  presented  their  acts  in  an  aspect  that  might  be 
easily  rendered  suspicious.  These  good  men  soon  perceived 
that  a  controversy  was  unavoidable,  and  did  not  take  pains, 
which  they  knew  would  be  fruitless,  to  prevent  it.  They  seem, 
indeed,  themselves  to  have  desired  a  free  discussion,  to  the 
end  that  the  truth  might  be  ascertained,  and  people's  minds 
put  at  rest ;  but  they  were  anxiously  desirous  that  it  should 
be  conducted  with  moderation  and  without  acrimony. 

Immediately  after  the  publication  of  Oecolampadius's  "  Ex- 
position," Bucer  wrote  to  Brentz  at  Salle,  in  Suabia,  and 
conjured  him,  in  the  warmest  terms,  by  their  friendship,  by 
the  welfare  of  the  church,  and  for  God's  sake,  to  create  no 
enmity  by  his  answer.  He  wrote  in  the  same  manner  to  the 
divines  of  Nurembei'g,  Augsburg,  and  Nordlingen,  to  dispose 
them  to  kindness  and  moderation.  Finally,  he  and  his  col- 
league sent  a  distinguished  messenger  to  Luther  at  Wittenberg, 
with  a  letter,  in  which  they  exhausted  all  their  resources  to 
soften  him  and  to  prevent  the  ebullition  of  his  constitutional 
vehemence.  But  their  benevolent  exertions  were  utterly  fruit- 
less. Brentz  answered  morosely,  that  they  had  themselves 
kindled  the  fire,  and  might  now  see  how  they  would  extinguish 
it.  This  answer  was  immediately  published,  as  if  his  purpose 
had  been  to  aggravate  the  mischief.  He  averred,  indeed,  that 
this  was  done  without  his  knowledge ;  but  he  had,  at  least, 
furnished  the  occasion,  by  sending  copies  of  it  everywhere  to 
his  friends,  even  before  it  was  transmitted  to  Bucer.  Luther 
sent  back  their  messenger,  the  professor  of  Hebrew,  George 
Chaselius,  with  an  answer  in  writing,  in  which  he  says,  drily 
and  bluntly,  "  One  of  the  two  parties  must  be  of  the  devil ; 
and  for  this  reason  he  would  suffer  neither  mediation  nor 
restraint."*     His  acts  soon  proved  that  he  was  in  earnest. 


*  Plank,  7ol.  ii.  p.  317. 
2  A 


302  HISTORY   OF   THE 

At  tlie  commencement  of  the  year  1526,  he  wrote  a  letter  to 
the  people  of  Reutlingen,  and  an  introduction  to  the  Syn- 
gramma,  which  Agricola  had,  in  the  mean  time,  translated 
into  German,  both  of  Avhich  writings,  in  the  judgment  of  pro- 
fessor Plank,  were  properly  nothing  else  than  the  annunciation 
of  a  purpose,  to  wage  the  most  implacable  war  against  all  the 
opposers  of  his  favorite  dogma.  They  contained,  in  the  mean 
time,  a  prelude  of  the  manner  in  which  this  war  would  be 
waged,  which  was  adapted  to  awaken  only  mournful  anticipa- 
tions of  the  future.  In  both  these  productions,  he  protested 
that  the  doctrine  of  Carlstadt,  Zwingle,  and  Oecolampadius 
must  have  proceeded  from  the  devil,  inasmuch  as  they  adopted 
different  interpretations  of  the  words  of  institution,  and  the 
devil  could  nowhere  be  so  easily  detected  as  in  lies  and  divi- 
sions about  matters  of  faith.  He  even  made  the  discovery 
that  this  three-headed  heresy  was  predicted  in  the  thirteenth 
chapter  of  St.  John's  Revelations,  where  it  was  represented 
by  the  beast  with  many  heads.  This  was  sufficient  to  render 
the  opinion  of  his  opponents  very  hideous  to  the  common 
people  :  but  he  sought,  also,  to  make  it  despicable.  For  this 
purpose,  he  artfully  represented  their  arguments  in  a  light 
that  gave  them  the  appearance  of  a  miserable  imbecility.  He 
reiterated  the  groundless  charge,  that  they  sought  to  prove 
that  the  word  is,  in  the  formula  of  institution,  must  be  taken 
in  a  tropical  sense  there,  for  no  other  reason  than  because  it 
occurs  in  a  tropical  elsewhere.  He  accused  them  of  betaking 
themselves  to  circumlocutions  and  evasions,  when  an  antago- 
nist would  grapple  with  them  on  the  question  at  issue;  "for," 
says  he,  "when  we  demand  that  they  shall  prove  their  tropical 
interpretation  of  the  words.  This  is  my  body,  they  presently 
sing  a  different  song  from  John  vi.,  or  proudly  ask  us  what  is 
the  use  of  the  presence  of  Christ's  body ;  and  thus  they  fill 
their  pages  and  people's  ears  with  idle  words,  so  that  one  may 
see  plainly  how  much  the  devil  is  afraid."  "  Such  a  treat- 
ment," says  professor  Plank,  "might  have  irritated  meekness 
itself :  but  it  also  gave  great  advantage  to  the  aggrieved  party 
against  an  antagonist  who  could  suffer  himself  to  be  so  far 


GERMAN   REFORMED    CHURCH.  303 

misled  by  his  passions.  Oecolampadius  made  a  very  proper 
use  of  it ;  and  Luther's  anger  burned  more  fiercely,  because 
he  was  made  to  feel  that  he  ought  to  have  treated  him 
otherwise."* 

Oecolampadius  soon  replied  to  him,  "  not  with  vehemence, 
but  with  the  earnestness  of  one  pained  by  a  sense  of  injury." 
He  exposed  the  injustice  of  the  consequence  drawn  from  the 
alleged  difference  between  him  and  Zwingle,  and  showed  how 
easily  the  same  charge  might  be  urged  against  Luther  and  his 
party,  who  all  differed  in  their  explications  of  the  bodily  pre- 
sence. He  rebuked  the  unfairness  of  his  opponents  in  their 
mode  of  conducting  the  controversy,  complained  of  the  un- 
righteous treatment  he  had  suffered  at  their  hands,  and  replied 
•with  equal  modesty  and  fearlessness  to  the  often  repeated 
charge,  that  he  and  his  associates  had  originated  the  strife, 
or  had,  at  least,  exasperated  it,  by  their  railings.  "  And 
now,  instead  of  recriminating  on  this  ground,  he  cast  some 
glances  into  Luther's  interior,  sought  out  there  the  true  causes 
of  his  acrimony,  and  not  only  touched,  but  actually  pressed 
somewhat  unsoftly,  the  place  from  which  so  much  of  not  quite 
wholesome  matter  had  flown  into  his  introduction,  and  his 
letter  to  the  Reutlingers."f 

Zwingle,  as  well  as  Oecolampadius,  was  named  in  these 
writings,  and  was  joined  with  him  in  the  same  condemnation. 
More  ardent  than  his  mild  associate,  it  was  still  less  to  be 
expected  that  he  Avould  be  silent  when  thus  provoked ;  but 
his  feelings  were  still  more  deeply  wounded,  and  his  keenest 
indignation  was  raised  by  the  unworthy  behaviour  of  some  of 
his  adversaries,  who  exerted  themselves  to  prevent  the  dis- 
ocmination  of  his  writings  by  the  intervention  of  the  civil 
government.  Although  those  writings  were  in  Latin,  and, 
consequently,  designed  only  for  the  learned,  these  contracted 
partisans  endeavored  to  have  them  suppressed,  evidently  fear- 
ing that  they  might  do  harm  even  there,  and  their  contents 
might  thus  come  indirectly  to  the  knowledge  of  the  people. 

*  Plank,  vol.  ii.  p.  319.  f  Ibid.  p.  321. 


804  HISTORY  OF  THE 

There  was,  in  this  conduct,  a  tacit  confession  of  the  force  of 
Zwingle's  arguments,  and  of  their  inability  to  refute  them : 
the  best  answer,  they  seem  to  have  thought,  was  to  suppress 
the  adversary's  argument :  and  while  they  sought  thus  to  shut 
out  his  writings  even  from  themselves,  they  denounced  his 
doctrine  as  an  odious  heresy,  in  their  addresses  to  the  people 
from  the  pulpit.  This  undignified  course  was  pursued,  par- 
ticularly, at  Nuremberg,  where  Osiander  stood  at  the  head  of 
the  evangelical  party.  Zwingle  complained,  in  a  letter  to  this 
eminent  divine,  that  the  preachers  of  that  city  indulged  in 
railing  against  his  doctrine  before  the  common  people,  instead 
of  learnedly  refuting  it,  and  expressed  the  wish  that  the  sub- 
ject were  discussed  in  writings  among  the  learned,  and  not  in 
such  addresses  to  the  multitude.  A  judgment  may  be  formed 
of  the  spirit  of  the  times  and  the  state  of  men's  minds  on  the 
subject,  from  the  answer  of  Osiander :  "  You  think  we  should 
bear  that,  omitting  to  preach,  we  should  be  occupied  only  in 
writing  books  and  letters.  But  tell  me,  you  most  stupid 
beast !  (stolidissima  bellua !)  did  Christ  send  us  to  preach  or 
to  write  ?  Dare  you  demand  that  we  should  omit  what  Christ 
has  enjoined,  and  should  do  what  would  be  most  advantageous 
to  your  errors  ?  And  as  to  writing  something  by  all  means, 
'"'are  those  to  be  wholly  silent  who  have  not  talent  enough  for 
such  an  undertaking,  but  are,  nevertheless,  pastors  of  Christ's 
flock,  and  ministers  of  the  word?"*  Such  was  the  courtly 
language  of  a  distinguished  theologian,  addressed  to  such  a 
man  as  Zwingle  !  It  is  unnecessary  to  add  a  word  of  comment 
on  its  character :  we  will  only  remark  that  nothing  could  be 
more  acceptable  to  an  enemy  of  the  Reformation  than  a  con- 
troversy among  its  ministers  carried  on  in  such  a  spirit. 

Provoked  by  such  injuries,  and  necessitated  to  counteract 
the  measures  of  his  ungenerous  adversaries,  Zwingle  now  pub- 
lished his  work,  Klarer  Unterricht  vom  Naclitmalil,  &c., — 
"Plain  Instruction  on  the  Lord's  Supper;"  which  was  not 
only  written  in  German,  but  was  designedly  adapted  to  the 

*  Plank,  vol.  ii.  p.  314,  note  167. 


GERMAN   REFORMED   CHURCH.  305 

capacities  of  the  common  people,  who,  so  far  as  it  could  reach 
them,  were  thus  enabled  to  learn  the  doctrine  of  the  Swiss 
reformer  from  an  original  source.  In  this  work,  Zwingle  first 
names  Luther  as  his  antagonist,  but  names  him  with  becoming 
respect.  He  wrote,  about  the  same  time,  a  letter  to  the  peo- 
ple of  Nuremberg^  and,  somewhat  later,  another  to  those  of 
EsUngen.  In  these  letters,  and  especially  in  the  last,  he 
complains,  with  warmth,  of  the  con^ct  of  those  of  his  adver- 
saries who  endeavored  to  suppress  his  doctrine,  which  they 
were  unable  to  disprove,  and  exposes,  with  keen  satire,  the 
arguments  by  which  others  thought  they  had  refuted  it. 
"They  cry  out,"  he  says,  "that  we  are  heretics,  who  must 
not  "be  listened  to  ;  they  forbid  our  writings ;  they  invoke  the 
government  to  resist  our  doctrine  with  allits  might !  Did  the 
pope  do  otherwise,  when  the  truth  would  lift  up  its  head? 
Let  them  refute  us  :  but  must  we  think  ourselves  refuted  by 
mere  contradiction,  or  by  reproaches,  or  by  answers  which 
they  themselves  cannot  explain  ?  What  else  do  they  bring 
against  us  ?  When  we  say,  It  is  of  no  benefit  to  eat  the  body 
of  Christ  carnally,  they  answer.  It  is  done  spiritually;  and 
you  are  an  unbeliever,  and  a  fanatic,  and  a  hypocrite,  and  a 
rebel !  W^hen  we  then  ask  whether  Christ  has  two  bodies, 
the  one  material  and  the  other  spiritual,  they  double  their 
outcry  against  the  fanatics,  and  say.  We  eat  the  material 
body  of  Christ  spiritually  !  When  we  ask  again,  whether  the 
body  of  Christ  can  be  eaten  in  a  twofold  manner,  once  by 
faith,  and  again  by  eating  his  flesh  materio-spiritually,  and 
demand  the  proof  that  the  Scripture  speaks  of  such  a  twofold 
eating,  they  are  dumb,  or  break  out  into  railing."  "This 
sarcastic  representation,"  says  professor  Plank,  "was,  to  be 
sure,  but  too  manifestly  the  representation  of  an  adversary : 
but,  when  Zwingle  wrote  this,  Luther  had  already  published 
his  '  Sermon  on  the  Sacrament  against  the  Fanatics.'  "* 

This  sermon  of  Luther's,  the  same  writer  says,  "  was  de- 
signedly and  solely  adapted  to  make  the  new  doctrine  appear 


*  riank,  vol.  ii.  p.  324. 
2a  2  39 


306  HISTORY   OF   THE 

to  the  people  as  abominable,  the  arguments  of  its  advocates 
as  weak,  and  their  objections  to  the  old  doctrine  as  con- 
temptible as  possible.  This  design,  which  nothing  but  the 
character  of  the  times  can  excuse,  must  be  admitted ;  for  it 
is  not  to  be  supposed  that,  in  a  controversial  writing,  Luther 
would  have  employed  the  mode  of  argumentation  which  pre- 
vails throughout  the  whole  discourse.*  In  this  sermon,  Luther 
adopts  both  the  theory  of  the  Syngramma  on  the  mode  of 
Christ's  presence  in  the  sacrament,  and  the  notion  of  the 
proper  ubiquity  of  the  body  of  Christ,  which  Pirkheimer  had 
asserted  before  him.f  On  this  portion  of  the  sermon.  Plank 
remarks :  "  What  could  have  seduced  Luther  to  make  use  of 
the  fog  in  which  the  authors  of  the  Syngramma  had  enveloped 
the  bodily  presence  ?  to  speak  of  the  presence  in  the  bread  just 
as  they  spoke  of  the  presence  in  the  word  ?  to  profess,  like 
them,  to  assert  an  essential  presence,  and  yet  perpetually  to 
interchange  it  with  another  which  nobody  had  ever  called  by 
that  name  ?  what  could  have  moved  him  to  this,  since  he,  at 
the  same  time,  betakes  himself  to  the  doctrine  of  ubiquity  ? 
This  position,  which  the  authors  of  the  Syngramma  wished  to 
avoid,  could  save  him  from  the  perplexity  in  which  they  involved 
themselves,  could,  at  least,  afford  him  the  occasion  to  remove, 
as  far  as  he  could  ever  desire,  from  the  opinion  of  his  oppo- 
nents ;  but  now,  too,  Ave  must  be  every  moment  in  fear  for 
him,  as  well  as  for  them,  that  the  whole  controversy  might 
turn  out  to  be,  at  bottom,  nothing  but  a  needless  strife  about 
words.  Exactly  like  them,  he  sets  forth  the  notion  that 
Christ  is  brought  to  us  by  the  word,  and  is  brought  into  our 
hearts  by  the  preaching  of  the  word,  and  hence  concludes, 
'  Why  should  it  be  thought  so  strange  that  he  brings  himself 
into  the  bread  and  wine  ?'  Exactly  as  we  asked  them,  might 
we  now  put  the  question  to  him.  Can  the  body  of  Christ,  then, 
be  essentially  in  the  word,  and  be  brought  essentially  into  our 

*  Plank,  vol.  ii.  p.  324. 

■)•  The  first  who  asserted  the  ubiquity  of  Christ,  as  to  his  human  nature, 
■was  J.  Le  Fevre  d'Etaples  in  France  ;  and  from  him,  it  seems,  Pirkheimer 
borrowed  it.     See  Schroeck,  Kirch.  Gesch.  s.  d.  r.  vol.  ii.  p^  496, 


GERMAN   REFORMED    ClIURCn.  307 

hearts  ?  And,  exactly  like  them,  he  would  be  compelled  to 
affirm  it,  inconceivable  as  it  is :  for,  if  he  did  not,  he  and  his 
opponents  were  of  the  same  opinion.  But  to  what  purpose 
had  he  need  to  accept  this  position,  which  nobody  can  receive, 
since  he  had  already  determined  to  maintain  the  corporeal 
omnipresence  of  Christ,  from  which  his  presence  in  the  sacra- 
ment could  be  more  naturally  inferred  ?  '  Christ,'  says  he, 
'  is  everywhere,  in  all  creatures,  in  the  stone,  in  the  fire,  in 
the  water,  yea,  even  in  the  rope,  although  he  is  willing  to  be 
participated  only  in  the  bread.'  "* 

Here  we  must  suspend  our  notices  of  this  lamentable  con- 
troversy, in  which,  from  its  very  inception,  most  of  the  actors 
betrayed  so  much  of  the  infirmities  of  a  fallen  nature,  and 
furnished  so  large  a  mass  of  materials  for  a  history  which  no 
sincere  Christian  can  read  without  pain.  The  author  whom 
we  have  closely  followed,  himself  a  member  of  the  Lutheran 
church,  closes  this  section  of  his  history  with  the  I'cmark :  "  It  is 
time  that  we  should  see  the  noble,  magnanimous  Luther,  fired 
by  no  other  passion  than  the  love  of  truth,  in  another  sphere 
of  action ;  for  in  this  one, — the  truth  cannot  be  concealed, 
if  even  it  durst  be, — in  this  one  he  does  not  appear," — [zeiget 
er  sicJi  nicht.)-\  That  great  man  had  faults  which  God  per- 
mitted to  remain  in  his  character,  and  to  be  visible  even  to 
the  weakest  in  his  church,  that  they  might  learn  to  honor  him 
as  a  mere  instrument,  and  to  give  all  the  glory  of  the  good 
which  he  wrought  to  God  alone. 

*  Plank,  vol.  ii.  p.  329,  note  19G.  f  Ibid.  p.  331. 


308  HISTORY   OF  THE 


CHAPTER  V. 

CONTINUED  PEOGRESS  OF  THE   REFORMATION  IN  ZURICH. 

During  all  the  noise  and  heat  of  the  controversy  on  the 
Lord's  supper,  and  notwithstanding  the  new  difficulties  which 
it  created,  the  Reformation  continued  to  advance  in  the  city 
and  canton  of  Zurich,  as  well  as  elsewhere.  Hitherto,  the 
mass  had  maintained  a  doubtful  existence  in  this  canton,  but 
the  time  of  its  entire  abolition  had  now  arrived.  By  the  de- 
cree of  December,  1523,  a  mortal  Avound  was  inflicted  upon 
this  pompous  rite,  when  liberty  was  given  to  all  to  celebrate  it 
or  not,  as  they  might  choose ;  and  it  languished,  in  conse- 
quence, and  fell  more  and  more  into  neglect  and  disregard. 
But,  as  it  still  retained  its  hold  upon  the  affections  and  prac- 
tice of  the  remaining  votaries  of  Rome,  and  its  legal  existence 
stood  in  the  w^ay  of  a  return  to  the  Lord's  supper  as  insti- 
tuted by  the  Saviour  himself,  Zwingle  and  his  associates  did 
not  cease  their  exertions  to  effect  its  entire  overthrow.  The 
councils,  however,  were  tardy  in  their  movements,  and  while 
they  yielded  to  the  reformers  on  other  points,  could  not  yet 
be  persuaded  to  lay  their  hands  upon  that  institution  which 
constituted  the  very  soul  of  the  Papist  worship,  and  the  sup- 
pression of  Avhich  would  give  greater  offence,  and  be  viewed 
by  zealous  Papists  with  more  horror,  than  all  the  other 
religious  changes  which  had  taken  place,  or  might  yet  be 
undertaken. 

In  this  condition  things  remained  when,  on  the  eleventh  day 
of  April,  1525,  Zwingle  and  his  fellow-laborers,  Leo  Juda, 
Engelhard,  Myconius,  and  Megander,  or  Grossman,  presented 
themselves  before  the  councils,  and  petitioned  that  the  mass, 
which  they  had  proved  to  be  full  of  idolatry,  be  abolished, 
and  the  Lord's  supper  reinstated  agreeably  to  its  primitive 


GERMAN   REFORMED    CHURCH.  309 

institution.  They  found  a  zealous  opponent  in  the  secretary, 
Joachim  Am  Grlit,  who  disallowed  Zwingle's  theory,  and 
contended  that,  as  the  verb  is  is  a  substantive  verb,  it  must 
signify  essential  being,  and  the  words,  T7ns  is  my  body  must, 
therefore,  mean  that  the  bread  is  the  essential  body  of  Christ, 
and  cannot,  without  sophistry,  be  represented  to  mean,  This 
signifies  my  body.  Zwingle  argued,  in  reply,  that  the  Scrip- 
ture speaks  of  the  body  of  Christ  in  a  threefold  sense,  viz., 
firsty  of  his  natural  body,  as  it  subsisted  during  his  earthly  life ; 
secondly,  of  his  glorified  body,  as  it  is  since  his  resurrection ; 
and,  thirdly,  of  his  mystical  body,  the  church ;  and,  as  the 
words  of  institution  cannot  be  understood  of  his  body  in  any 
of  these  three  senses,  they  must,  of  necessity,  be  taken  in  a 
tropical  sense.  A  commission,  consisting  of  the  five  petition- 
ers and  four  counsellors,  who  assembled  in  the  afternoon  to 
consult  upon  the  proper  mode  of  proceeding  in  the  case,  re- 
solved that  the  subject  should  be  again  brought  before  the  two 
councils  on  the  following  day.  On  the  12th  of  April,  there- 
fore, Zwingle,  accompanied  by  his  associates,  supported  his 
petition  before  the  councils,  and  urged  in  behalf  of  his  inter- 
pretation the  usage  of  the  Scri23tures,  as  exhibited  in  such 
examples  as.  The  seed  is  the  word, —  The  field  is  the  tvorld;  in 
which,  he  contended,  the  substantive  verb  is  certainly  does  not 
mean  essential  being,  and  must  be  taken  to  mean  signifies. 
Am  Grlit  objected  that  these  examples  were  not  parallel,  be- 
cause they  were  taken  from  parables,  the  words  of  which  are 
necessarily  symbolical  and  figurative,  but  the  words  of  institu- 
tion are  not  a  parable,  but  plain  didactic  words.  Zwingle  re- 
plied that  his  examples  were  not  taken  from  parables,  but 
from  the  explanations  of  parables,  and  were,  therefore,  also 
plain  didactic  words.  This  answer  silenced  Am  Grlit  and 
satisfied  the  councils,  who  thereupon  decreed  that  the  mass 
be  wholly  abolished,  and  the  Lord's  supper  celebrated  on  the 
following  day,  agreeably  to  the  institution  of  Christ. 

Although  the  audience  were  satisfied  with  Zwingle's  defence 
of  his  doctrine,  his  antagonist's  last  objection  left  an  unplea- 
sant impression  upon  his  own  mind.     He  was  desirous  of  find- 


310  HISTORY   OP   THE 

ing  a  passage  in  which  the  verb  is  occurs  in  precisely  the 
same  connection  in  which  it  is  used  in  the  Lord's  supper,  that 
is,  in  the  form  of  a  sacrament ;  where  it  is,  nevertheless,  con- 
fessedly tropical.  He  continued,  after  retiring  to  his  bed,  to 
revolve  in  his  mind  all  the  texts  which  he  was  able  to  recol- 
lect, but  without  success.  While  he  was  thus  employed,  he 
fell  asleep ;  but  his  anxious  mind  continued  still  to  be  exercised 
in  the  same  way,  and  he  dreamed  that  he  was  contending  with 
his  antagonist,  and,  though  he  knew  the  truth,  was  unable  to  find 
words  to  express  it.  This  inability  sorely  distressed  him ;  and, 
in  this  worrying  perplexity,  some  one  said  to  him,  "  Sluggard  ! 
why  don't  you  give  for  answer  what  is  written  in  Exodus  xii.  11, 
It  is  the  Lord's  jmssoverf  He  instantly  awoke  ;  the  dream 
was  still  vividly  before  him  ;  and,  springing  from  his  bed,  he 
opened  his  Bible  and  found  the  place.  It  was  exactly  what 
he  wanted.  The  subject  of  it  was  a  sacrament  of  the  ancient 
church.  The  words  were  spoken  of  the  lamb  or  kid  which  was 
eaten  to  commemorate  the  Lord's  passing  over  the  houses 
of  the  Israelites,  when  he  destroyed  all  the  first-born  of  Egypt. 
There  could  be  no  dispute  here  about  the  import  of  the  word 
is,  which  all  must  confess  to  mean  signifies;  for  the  lamb 
could  only  signify  the  Lord's  passover.  Highly  gratified  by 
this  discovery,  that  seemed  so  much  like  an  inspiration  from 
above,  he  made  this  text  the  subject  of  his  discourse  on  the 
following  morning,  and  spoke  from  it  with  all  the  animation 
and  power  which  the  occasion  was  adapted  to  inspire. 

This  dream,  and  especially  a  casual  remark  of  Zwingle's 
respecting  the  author  of  the  suggestion  that  relieved  him  from 
his  perplexity,  afi"orded  matter  for  much  illiberal  criticism  and 
groundless  obloquy  to  his  adversaries.  He  had  used  the 
expression,  Ater  an  alhusfuerit  nihil  memini;  that  is.  Whether 
he  was  black  or  white,  I  do  not  remember.  A  phraseology 
like  this  was  used  by  the  ancient  Romans,  when  they  meant 
to  express  ignorance  or  indifference  about  the  author  of  a 
transaction ;  and  Zwingle  meant  no  more  by  it  than  to  say 
that  he  could  give  no  account  of  the  person  who  made  the 
suggestion.     Some  of  his  adversaries,  nevertheless,  M'ith  more 


GERMAN   REFORMED    CHURCH.  311 

sectarian  feeling  than  Christian  knowledge,  were  persuaded 
that  he  was  in  doubt  whether  his  prompter  was  black  or  wliite. 
For  their  part,  they  had  reason  enough,  they  thought,  to 
believe  that  he  was  black.  From  his  sable  color,  and  from 
all  the  circumstances  of  the  case,  as  they  viewed  them,  they 
inferred  that  he  could  be  no  other  than  the  devil :  and  from 
these  premises,  they  gravely  concluded  that,  by  Zwingle's  own 
confession,  he  had  derived  his  doctrine  on  the  Lord's  supper 
from  the  devil.  A  fine  specimen  this  of  reasoning,  on  so  solemn 
a  subject !  Such,  too  often,  is  the  spirit  of  theological  con- 
troversy, under  the  veil  of  a  holy  zeal  for  truth  and  a  pious 
devotion  to  the  glory  of  God  !* 

The  Lord's  supper  w^as  now  administered,  and  the  blessed 
Kedeemer's  vicarious  death  commemorated,  with  pious  joy  and 
thankfulness,  by  a  larger  number  of  communicants  than  had 
ever  appeared  at  the  altar  to  participate  in  the  mass.  The 
solemn  service  continued  three  days,  namely,  on  the  thirteenth, 
fourteenth,  and  sixteenth  days  of  April,  being  Holy-Thursday, 
Good-Friday,  and  Easter-Sunday.  The  first  of  these  days 
was  appropriated  to  the  youth,  the  second  to  the  middle-aged, 
and  the  third  to  those  who  were  advanced  in  life.  Never 
before  had  Zurich  seen  such  a  day:  never  did  her  pious 
preachers  minister  with  a  lighter  heart,  nor  the  church  rejoice 
with  a  joy  so  pure  and  so  universal.  It  was  at  once  the  day 
on  which  she  commemorated  her  deliverance  from  the  bondage 
of  sin  and  death  by  the  kind  mediation  and  the  glorious 
triumph  of  the  Son  of  God,  and  the  day  on  which  she  first 
obtained  the  full  consciousness  of  her  freedom  from  the  bond- 
age of  a  debasing  superstition  and  the  grasp  of  a  grinding 
ecclesiastical  tyranny.  She  felt  that  the  truth  had  made  her 
free ;  and  the  light  that  shone  around  her  from  the  gospel 
revealed  to  her  the  beauty  of  religion  in  its  original  simplicity, 
as  it  came  from  the  hand  of  God,  and  showed  in  the  distance 
the  delightful  prospect  of  eternal  life,  as  the  free  gift  of  God, 
through  the  alone  merit  of  Jesus  Christ,  with  no  purgatory 


*  Hottinger,  p.  244. 


312  HISTORY   OF   THE 

between,  to  arm  death  with  new  terrors,  and  to  mingle  bitter- 
ness with  the  consohitions,  and  disturbance  with  the  peace 
which  the  richness  of  redeeming  love  and  the  hope  of  heaven 
inspire. 

In  many  places  in  Crermany,  the  transition  from  the  popish 
mass  to  the  Lord's  supper  was  made  by  a  gradual  change.  A 
German  form  of  celebration,  in  the  whole,  or  in  part,  of  the 
service,  was  substituted  for  the  Latin,  and  more  or  less  of  the 
superstitious  ceremonial  of  the  church  was  omitted.  This  was 
not  done  in  Zurich.  Zwingle  had,  indeed,  contemplated  a 
similar  mode  of  proceeding,  and  had,  as  early  as  the  month 
of  August,  1523,  prepared  a  new  formulary  for  the  celebration 
of  mass,  as  appears  from  a  letter  of  that  date,  written  to 
Geroldseck,  the  administrator  of  Einsiedeln  ;  but  there  is  no 
trace  of  its  having  ever  been  brought  into  actual  use.  The 
reformers  of  Zurich  preferred,  it  seems,  upon  maturer  reflec- 
tion, to  await  the  time  when  the  whole  abuse  could  be  at  once 
put  away.  This  may  be  inferred  from  the  letter  of  Zwingle 
to  Matthias  Aber  of  Reutlingen,  dated  November  16,  1524, 
in  which  he  says,  that  he  is  thankful  to  God  that  he  has  not 
introduced  another  mass,  because  he  would  thus  only  have 
driven  out  one  nail  by  driving  in  another,  and  new  difficulties 
would  thus  have  been  put  in  the  way  of  a  further  change.  He 
and  his  associates,  therefore,  deemed  it  safer  to  prepare  the 
public  mind  for  a  complete  abolition  of  the  mass,  and  then  to 
return  at  once  to  the  primitive  institution.* 

The  mode  of  celebrating  the  Lord's  supper,  when  the  long- 
contemplated  change  was  introduced,  was  in  conformity  with 
a  design  which  Zwingle  had  previously  matured,  and  which 
was  now  given  to  the  public  in  a  printed  formulary  or  directory. 
Its  title  was,  ^c^w)i  oder  Branch  des  Nachtmahls,  Gedaehtniss 
oder  Danksagung  Chrisfi,  wie  sie  auf  Osterji  zu  Zurich  ange- 
hehet  wird,  im  Jahr  1525 ;  that  is,  "  Action  or  Use  of  the 
Supper,  a  Commemoration  of  Christ,  or  Thanksgiving,  as  it  is 
begun  on  Easter,  at  Zurich,  in  the  Year  1525."     The  follow- 

*  Fueslin's  Beitrage,  vol.  i.  p.  52,  &c.,  n.  13,  and  p.  169,  n.  28. 


GERMAN    REFORMED    CHURCH.  313 

ins  extract,  translated  from  the  German,  will  interest  the 
curious  reader,  as  a  specimen  of  the  scrupulous  attention  of 
the  Swiss  reformer  to  primitive  simplicity : 

"  After  the  sermon,  a  table  is  placed  in  the  church,  covered 
with  a  clean  cloth,  upon  which  a  little  basket,  with  unleavened 
bread,  or  flattened  cakes,  is  set,  with  wooden  dishes,  and  cups 
into  which  wine  is  poured.  The  pastor  then  takes  his  place, 
standing  with  his  deacons  or  assistants  at  the  table.  The 
pastor  exhorts  the  whole  assembly  earnestly  to  give  diligent 
attention  to  every  thing.  One  of  the  deacons  thereupon  reads 
the  words  of  the  institution  of  the  Lord's  supper  contained  in 
Paul's  epistle  to  the  Corinthians.  The  other  deacon  then  reads 
a  considerable  portion  of  the  sixth  chapter  of  the  gospel  of 
St.  John,  in  order  that  every  one  may  learn  from  the  Lord's 
words  in  what  manner  we  may  truly  eat  the  flesh  and  drink 
the  blood  of  Christ.  After  this,  the  articles  of  the  Christian 
faith  are  recited.  The  pastor  then  earnestly  exhorts  the 
people  that  every  one  examine  himself,  and  take  heed  that  he 
approach  not  unworthily,  and  so  become  guilty  of  the  body 
and  blood  of  the  Lord.  Upon  this,  all  who  are  present  shall 
kneel  and  repeat  after  the  pastor  the  Lord's  prayer.  The 
pastor  then  takes  the  unleavened  bread  into  his  hands,  and,  in 
the  presence  of  the  whole  assembly  of  believers,  recites  the 
words  of  institution,  in  an  audible  voice  and  with  great  devout- 
ness.  Thereupon  he  distributes  the  bread  to  the  deacons,  and 
presents  to  them  the  wine,  also,  and  they  immediately  carry 
the  bread  in  dishes,  and  the  wine  in  cups,  and  present  them 
to  the  whole  congregation.  Every  one  then  takes  into  his 
hands  what  is  presented  to  him,  and  off'ers  a  portion,  also, 
to  the  one  next  to  him,  and  the  wine  is  distributed  in  the  same 
manner.  In  the  mean  time,  while  the  congregation  are  eating 
the  bread  of  the  Lord,  and  drinking  of  his  cup,  one  of  the 
ministers  of  the  church  reads  in  the  pulpit  from  the  holy 
gospel  of  St.  John,  beginning  at  the  thirteenth  chapter,  the 
very  consolatory  and  affectionate  words  which  the  Lord  Jesus 
spoke  to  his  disciples  after  he  had  washed  their  feet,  and  before 
he  went  out  to  the  mount  of  Olives.  After  the  deacons  shall 
2B  40 


314  HISTORY   OF   THE 

have  returned  to  the  table  with  the  dishes  and  cups,  the  whole 
congregation  kneel,  and  give  thanks  and  praise  to  God  for  the 
great  benefit  of  redemption  by  Christ.  In  the  churches  of  the 
country,  -which  have  only  one  minister  and  pastor,  he  alone 
reads  every  part,  and  men  and  Avomen  go  successively,  in 
proper  order,  to  the  table."  "  This  mode  of  celebration  was 
afterwards  adopted  by  many  of  the  Swiss  churches  and  those 
of  Rhiitia,  or  the  Orisons." 

In  this  manner  was  the  Lord's  supper  administered  in  the 
Reformed  church  of  ZuricTi,  when  it  first  emerged  from  the 
superstitious  community  of  Rome.  This  form  was  not  adopted 
everywhere  in  Switzerland ;  neither  was  it  designed  for  any 
other  churches  than  those  of  this  canton ;  and  even  here,  it 
neither  was,  nor  could  be,  observed  in  the  smaller  churches, 
where  deacons  were  wanting  to  assist  the  presiding  pastor  in 
his  sacred  function.  In  these  churches,  the  communicants, 
instead  of  receiving  the  elements  in  their  places  by  the  ministry 
of  deacons,  w^ent  successively  to  the  table,  and  received  them 
there  from  the  hands  of  the  pastor. 

It  will  be  observed,  that  the  communion  was  not  preceded 
by  a  confession  of  sins  to  the  ministers  of  the  church,  and 
absolution  by  them.  Confession  to  the  priest,  followed  by 
absolution,  is  an  essential  prerequisite  in  the  church  of  Rome. 
The  communicant  is  required  to  confess  every  particular  sin, 
be  it  what  it  may,  and  is  taught  that  the  efficacy  of  his  abso- 
lution, and,  consequently,  the  salvation  of  his  soul,  depends 
on  having  made  a  full  confession  of  all  his  sins.  Private  con- 
fession  before  communion  was  retained  by  Luther ;  but  he  left 
communicants  to  determine  for  themselves  what  it  would  be 
proper  or  expedient  to  confess  to  any  other  than  God,  and 
viewed  absolution  as  equally  efi'ectual,  provided  they  were 
sincere.  Zwingle  dropped  both  confession  and  absolution 
altogether,  as  popish  institutions,  and,  requiring  only  that 
every  one  should  examine  himself,  left  him  to  confess  his  sins 
to  God  only. 

No  written  or  printed  form  was  read  as  an  introduction  to 
the  act  of  communion ;  neither  is  any  thing  said  in  this  directory 


GERMAN   REFOKMED    CHURCH.  315 

of  sacred  music  or  congregational  singing.  The  whole  service 
connected  with  the  communion  consisted  in  reading  and  speak- 
ing, and  the  lessons  that  were  read  were  appropriate  portions 
of  the  Holy  Scripture.  The  organ  still  continued  in  the 
Great-Minster  more  than  two  years  longer,  but  was  silent. 
Congregational  singing  was  not  introduced  into  the  worship 
of  the  churches  of  Zurich  until  the  year  1598,  although  it  was 
adopted  in  some  of  the  churches  of  Basel  as  early  as  1526, 
and  German  psalms  were  sung  in  the  worship  of  the  churches 
of  the  little  state  of  llilhlhausen,  by  the  boys  who  were  taught 
to  sing  at  school,  as  a  substitute  for  the  Latin  chauntings  of 
the  canons,  in  1523.  Zwingle  himself  was  one  of  the  most 
skilful  musicians  of  his  times,  and  indulged  very  frequently 
both  in  vocal  and  instrumental  music  for  his  own  amusement ; 
yet  he  did  not  think  it  expedient  to  give  a  place  to  this  exer- 
cise in  public  worship.  He  was,  doubtless,  induced  to  omit  it 
by  the  superior  value  and  importance  which  he  assigned  to  the 
word  of  God  in  reading  and  preaching.  The  word  was,  in 
his  view,  paramount,  and  for  reformation  it  was  every  thing. 

The  deacons,  who  are  mentioned  in  this  directory,  were  not 
the  same  class  of  church-officers  whom  we  are  accustomed  to 
call  by  the  same  name.  They  were  ordained  ministers  of  the 
gospel,  who  assisted  the  principal  pastor  in  his  ministry,  and, 
though  subordinate  to  him  while  they  occupied  such  a  station, 
performed  all  the  ministerial  functions,  and  might  elsewhere 
obtain  the  situation  of  principals.  There  is  no  notice  here  of 
lay-elders  or  lay-deacons  constituting  a  session,  consistory,  or 
church-council.  Zwingle  found  no  such  officers  in  existence 
in  the  church,  neither  did  he  introduce  them.  This  institution 
is  derived  from  Calvin  and  the  church  of  Geneva,  and  has 
been  received  in  the  United  States  through  the  church  of 
Holland.  Neither  is  there  here  any  recognition  of  a  synod, 
to  whom,  agreeably  to  our  ecclesiastical  organization,  it  would 
have  belonged  to  prescribe  a  form  of  celebration  of  the  Lord's 
supper.  Synods  were  first  assembled  in  Zurich,  in  April, 
1528,  when  complaints  against  some  of  the  clergy  furnished 
the  occasion  for  them.     They  were  then  authorized  by  an  act 


316  HISTORY   OF   THE 

of  the  councils.  They  met  ordinarily  twice  a  year,  and  con- 
sisted of  the  clergy  only,  with  a  lay  delegation  appointed  by 
the  secular  government,  and  representing  their  interests.  The 
supreme  authority  in  the  church  was  vested  in  the  council. 

Hottinger  gives  the  following  account  of  the  progress  of  the 
Reformation  in  Zurich  at  this  eventful  period : 

*'  Thereupon  followed  the  decree  of  government,  directing 
that  the  mass  should  be  abolished,  and,  on  the  next  day,  in- 
stead of  saying  mass,  the  Lord's  supper  should  be  celebrated ; 
which,  with  a  few  exceptions,  afforded  a  sincere  joy  to  the 
church.  Here  it  must  be  observed  that,  for  some  time  past,  the 
mass  had  been  celebrated  here  and  there  in  the  German  lan- 
guage, but  Zurich  was  the  first  place  where  it  was  wholly 
abolished.  From  this  time  onward,  tables  were  used  instead 
of  altars ;  the  wine  was  received,  not  by  the  priest  alone,  but 
by  the  whole  people  ;  the  prayers  were  offered  up,  not  in  a 
strange  language,  but  in  the  vernacular  tongue  ;  not  in  a  low 
muttering,  but  in  a  loud  and  audible  voice,  for  the  edification 
of  the  people ;  no  longer  was  the  sacrament  a  sacrifice  for  sin, 
but  a  commemoration  of  the  one  eternal  sacrifice  which  the 
one  only  priest  of  the  New  Testament  once  offered  upon  the 
cross ;  not  with  a  worshipping  of  the  sacrament,  but  of  him 
who  by  this  sacrament  seals  to  us  his  blessed  communion. 
The  holy  symbols  were  not  served  up  in  golden,  but  in  wooden 
vessels,  and,  in  this  holy  act,  as  few  ceremonies  as  possible  were 
used.     The  altars  were,  consequently,  this  year  removed  from 

the  churches The  rites  that  were  to  be  observed  in 

future,  in  the  celebration  of  the  Lord's  supper,  were  published 
in  print,  for  general  information ;  with  the  admonition  added, 
that  all  such  as  defile  the  body  of  Christ  by  acts  of  vice  shall 
be  excluded  from  the  holy  supper ;  and,  if  it  were  acceptable 
to  the  church,  this  holy  sacrament  should  be  celebrated  four 
times  a  year ;  namely,  at  Easter,  Whitsuntide,  in  the  fall,  and 
at  Christmas:  which  last,  if  it  was  ever  adopted,  was  after- 
wards changed."* 

*  Hottinger,  p.  243. 


GERMAN  REFORMED   CHURCH.  317 

The  zealous  adherents  of  tlie  jmpacv,  who  still  remained, 
were  deeply  mortified  bj  these  changes,  and  some  of  them 
petitioned  the  government  for  permission  to  celebrate  mass  in 
a  church  called  Die  Wasser-Kirche,  that  is,  the  Water-Church 
which  had  been  used  as  a  depository  of  the  trophies  gained 
by  the  troops  of  Zurich  in  the  Suabian  war,  but  was  now 
occupied  occasionally  by  the  ministers  of  the  parish  churches. 
This  request  was  refused,  but  the  discontented  were  permitted, 
for  the  present,  to  frequent  the  Papist  worship  in  the  adjoin- 
ing cantons  or  the  common  provinces,  particularly  in  Bern 
and  Einsiedeln. 

The  pleasure  of  the  reformer's  triumph  in  this  decisive  act 
was  not  without  alloy.  Occasions  were  not  wanting  to  those 
who  sought  them  to  mortify  and  distress  him.  Some  of  the 
malcontents,  maddened  with  rage  by  his  successful  exertions 
to  abolish  ceremonies  and  customs  in  which  they  placed  the 
essence  of  religion,  attacked  his  house  with  stones,  and  assailed 
him  with  volleys  of  imprecations  and  vulgar  abuse.  Order 
was,  however,  soon  restored.  One  of  the  offenders  being  ar- 
rested and  sent  to  prison,  the  rest  were  intimidated,  and  the 
peace  of  the  city  was  preserved.  On  the  other  part,  the 
people  of  the  country  came  in  crowds  to  present  themselves 
before  the  councils,  and  to  assure  them  of  their  hearty  con- 
currence in  the  late  measures  of  reformation,  and  their  readi- 
ness to  support  the  government  in  them,  at  the  hazard  of  their 
property  and  their  blood.  "Zwingle,"  said  Thomas  Plater, 
"  was  often  in  danger  in  Zurich  ;  but  God  protected  him :  for 
he  was  not  to  die  by  the  assassin,  but  in  the  field  of  battle, 
like  the  shepherd  by  his  flock."* 

Events  now  showed  how  the  abolition  of  the  mass  in  Zurich 
was  viewed  abroad,  throughout  the  other  cantons,  not  only  by 
the  rigid  Papists,  but  by  those  also  who  had  hitherto  been 
friendly  to  a  reformation,  and  had  borne  in  silence,  or  in  no 
marked  displeasure,  with  the  course  which  Zurich  had  pur- 
sued. 


*  Hottinger,  p,  248. 
2b2 


318  HISTORY   OF   THE 

On  the  thirteenth  of  September,  the  landamman,  or  chief 
magistrate  of  Glarus,  in  behalf  of  that  canton,  admonished  the 
government  and  people  of  Zurich  to  abstain  from  their  inno- 
vations in  religion.  He  was  respectfully  answered,  that  Zu- 
rich had  done  only  what  the  word  of  God  commanded  them 
to  do  :  their  measures,  therefore,  could  not  be  changed,  unless 
they  were  proved  to  be  erroneous  by  the  testimony  of  the 
Holy  Scriptures.  There  were,  however,  not  wanting  in 
Crlarus,  at  the  same  time,  men  who  had  received  the  light  of 
the  gospel,  and  approved  the  course  of  the  reformers.  Among 
these  was  C.  Lucksinger,  a  correspondent  of  Zwingle's,  who 
encouraged  him  to  persevere  in  his  labors,  and  invoked  for 
him  the  presence  and  the  help  of  God  in  his  arduous  en- 
terprise. 

This  preliminary  admonition  of  the  landamman  of  Crlarus 
was  in  a  few  days  succeeded  by  a  more  important  movement. 
On  the  eighteenth  of  the  same  month,  an  embassy  arrived  in 
Zurich,  from  the  six  cantons  of  Bern,  Crlarus,  Basel,  Soleure, 
Schaffhause7i,  and  Aj^penzell,  all  of  which  had  hitherto,  more 
or  less,  maintained  friendly  relations  with  Zurich.  In  a  pub- 
lic assembly  of  the  councils  and  the  citizens,  these  ambassadors 
stated,  that  the  cantons  whom  they  represented  saw  with  dis- 
pleasure the  abolition  of  the  mass  in  Zurich,  and  if  Zurich 
would  not  reinstate  this  service  in  her  churches,  those  cantons 
would  repudiate  her,  as  the  other  six  had  already  done,  and 
would  refuse  to  sit  with  her  in  the  national  diets,  in  which  they 
were  accustomed  to  meet  in  the  long-cherished  unity  of  their 
faith.  The  council,  after  politely  thanking  them  for  their 
attention,  returned  the  same  answer  to  them  Avhich  they  had 
given  to  the  landamman,  and,  on  former  occasions,  to  the 
other  cantons,  and  added  again  the  often-repeated  request 
that  the  honored  cantons  should  send  their  learned  men,  who 
were  conversant  with  the  Holy  Scriptures,  to  confer  on  these 
matters  with  those  of  Zurich,  and  to  ascertain,  by  a  diligent 
examination,  which  of  the  parties  was-  in  the  wrong,  pro- 
mising to  yield  if  convinced  of  error,  and  assuring  them, 
finally,   that   Zurich   would    always   be  ready  to    discharge 


GERMAN   REFORMED   CnURCH.  319 

faitlifullj  every  duty  wliicli  their  covenants  required  of 
her.* 

These  assurances  of  amity  and  faithfulness  ■were,  however, 
unsatisfactory.  They  had  been  often  given,  and,  being  still 
repeated,  only  served  to  irritate  those  "who  viewed  the  religious 
changes  in  this  canton  as  a  dereliction  of  duty  that  ^yas 
incompatible  with  fidelity  to  other  obligations.  The  pro- 
posal, also,  to  examine  these  changes  by  the  Holy  Scriptures, 
and  to  inquire  into  the  grounds  of  the  old  doctrines  and 
ceremonies,  seemed  rather  profane  than  reasonable  to  zealous 
Papists,  in  whose  estimation  the  faith  and  worship  of  the 
church  had  long  since  been  sufficiently  proved,  and  was  too 
sacred  a  subject  for  investigation.  The  firmness  of  Zurich 
in  her  religious  position,  therefore,  appeared  to  her  adversaries 
as  heretical  obstinacy  and  perverseness,  and  served  only  to 
exasperate  their  displeasure ;  and  the  zealous  votaries  of  Ro- 
manism did  not  omit  their  efforts  to  fan  this  bad  feeling  into 
a  flame. 

Zurich  now  stood  alone,  forsaken  by  all  her  confederates, 
and  shunned  as  a  profane  thing,  Avhich  it  would  be  sinful  to 
touch.  In  the  mean  time,  the  doctrine  of  the  Reformation 
had  penetrated  into  some  of  the  adjoining  cantons,  and  was 
spreading  over  the  provinces  which  owed  allegiance  to  the 
confederacy,  or  to  one  or  more  of  its  members.  The  rigid 
adherents  of  the  old  superstition,  having  succeeded  in  uniting 
all  the  cantons  against  Zurich,  resolved  not  only  to  purge 
themselves  of  the  new  heresy,  but  to  crush  it,  also,  in  the 
common  provinces  over  which  they  possessed  an  acknowledged 
jurisdiction,  intending,  no  doubt,  to  turn  their  united  force  next 
against  Zurich,  if  she  still  continued  to  hold  out  against  their 
demands.  They  declared  their  fixed  purpose  to  preserve  un- 
impaired, at  every  hazard,  the  laws  and  customs  of  the  church, 
and  to  punish  every  violation  of  them  :  the  priests  of  all  the 
parishes  were  commanded  to  celebrate  the  mass,  to  forbear 
preaching  Lutheran  doctrines,  to  abstain  from  marriage,  and 

*  Hottinger,  p.  253,  &c. 


320  HISTORY   OF   THE 

to  observe  the  ancient  laws  and  usages  of  the  church,  under 
the  penalty  of  expulsion  from  their  benefices,  and  other  suit- 
able punishments ;  and  orders  were  given  to  the  governors  of 
the  provinces  to  apprehend  and  deliver  over  to  the  tribunals 
of  their  superiors  all  such,  whether  ecclesiastical  or  secular 
persons,  as  should  be  found  acting  contrary  to  this  decree.* 

The  situation  of  Zurich  was  now  extremely  jsrecarious. 
While  the  hostile  attitude  of  the  other  cantons  threatened  her 
peace  from  without,  and  the  territories  on  her  borders  were 
overawed  by  fire  and  sword,  the  excesses  of  the  Anabaptists 
were  creating  disturbance  within  and  wasting  the  energies  of 
the  state.  The  prospect  thus  far  was  truly  discouraging  ;  on 
every  side,  dark  clouds  arose,  foreboding  a  tempest,  the  thunder 
of  which  was  already  heard  muttering  in  the  distance  :  every 
eye  saw  the  danger,  and  every  heart  felt  its  impression ;  and, 
while  the  heavens  were  thus  lowering  with  the  elements  of 
destruction,  there  were  few,  probably,  who  were  not  sensible 
how  little  strength  there  was  within  to  resist  the  fearful 
explosion.  But,  conscious  of  her  sincerity,  and  assured  of 
the  righteousness  of  her  cause,  Zurich  trusted  in  God,  who 
rules  the  elements  and  manages  the  storm.  Undismayed, 
therefore,  though  alone,  she  maintained  her  elevated  position, 
as  the  rock,  upon  which  all  its  billows  break,  continues  un- 
moved in  the  midst  of  a  troubled  sea :  and  it  was,  indeed,  the 
providence  of  God  that  protected  her  in  that  day  of  desertion 
and  trial,  when,  though  there  might  be  many  an  eye  to  pity, 
there  was  not  a  hand  to  save  her. 

The  Most  High  prepared  other  occupation  for  the  Roman 
see,  and  brought  upon  her  supreme  pontifi"  troubles  at  home, 
that  cast  Zurich  into  the  shade,  and  caused  her  to  be  in  a 
measure  forgotten. 

The  pope  Clement  VII.,  jealous  of  the  power  and  the 
ambition  of  the  emperor  Charles  Y.,  had  withdrawn  from  his 
interest,  and  entered  into  a  secret  treaty  of  neutrality  with 
the  king  of  France,  who  was  then  at  the  head  of  a  powerful 

*  Hottinger,  p.  252-254. 


GERMAN   REFORMED   CHURCH.  321 

army  in  Italy,  with  the  most  flattering  prospect  of  success, 
while  the  cause  of  Charles  seemed  almost  hopeless,  and  had 
drawn  with  him  the  state  of  Florence  into  the  same  defection. 
But,  by  the  battle  of  Pavia,  in  February,  1525,  the  power  of 
Fi'ance  was  annihilated  in  Italy,  her  king,  Francis  I.,  was 
made  a  prisoner  of  war  and  sent  into  Spain,  where  he  was 
detained  in  confinement  until  ]\Tarch  of  the  following  year. 
This  decisive  victory  subjected  all  Italy  to  the  will  of  the  con- 
queror ;  and  the  holy  father  had  little  to  hope  for  from  his 
clemency,  after  the  proof  he  had  given  of  his  own  treachery. 
"  The  pope  Clement,"  says  Schmid,  himself  a  Papist,  "knew 
already  that  Charles  had  been  fully  informed  of  all  that  had 
taken  place  between  him  and  Francis.  He  now  believed 
fully,  that  he  would  soon  come  to  Rome  to  be  crowned,  and 
would  then  take  possession  both  of  the  city  and  of  the  states 
of  the  church."*  How  to  ward  ofi"  this  dreaded  punishment, 
was  now  the  pontiff's  chief  care.  He  sought  anxiously  to 
make  his  peace  with  the  angry  monarch,  and  signed  a  treaty 
with  Lannoy,  the  viceroy  of  Naples,  by  which  he  bound  him- 
self to  pay  a  large  sum  of  money.  The  money  was  actually 
paid,  and  the  crafty  chief  immediately  used  it  to  pay  the 
arrears  due  to  his  discontented  and  clamorous  troops ;  but  the 
emperor  refused  to  ratify  the  treaty.  The  pope's  fears  were 
renewed  by  this  refusal.  He  formed  a  league  of  the  states- 
of  Italy  against  Charles,  and  wished  to  engage  France  in  it 
also.  But  the  French  king  was  a  prisoner  in  3Iadrid,  and 
sought  his  enlargement  in  vain,  the  emperor  insisting  upon 
terms  to  which  the  king  deemed  it  impossible  to  accede.  The 
pope,  informed  of  his  situation,  found  means  to  make  the 
communication  to  him  that  he  should  procure  his  liberty  on 
any  terms,  and  means  would  be  found  afterwards  to  save  him 
from  the  necessity  of  keeping  them.f  Francis  signed  the 
detested  treaty,  and  swore  at  the  altar  of  the  holy  evangelists 
that  he  Avould  faithfully  observe  it  to  the  end  of  his  days. 

*  Schmid's  Gesch.  d.  Deutschen,  b.  viii.  kap.  x.  band.  5. 
f  Ibid,  voL  V.  p.  17t). 

41 


322  HISTORY    OF   THE 

All  Italy  rejoiced  at  the  event,  and  the  lioly  father,  true  to 
his  promise  and  his  policy,  sent  a  special  minister  to  con- 
gratulate the  king  on  the  recovery  of  his  freedom,  and  to 
absolve  him  from  the  obligations  he  had  contracted,  and  the 
-oaths  he  had  sworn  to  fulfil  them,  in  the  treaty  of  Madrid  !* 

In  the  mean  time,  a  conspiracy  had  been  formed  in  Italy 
to  divest  the  emperor  of  his  DOwer  in  that  country  by  means 
of  his  own  forces.  The  conspn^ators  were  Francis  Sforza, 
duke  of  Mikm,  his  chancellor  Morone,  and  his  holiness  the 
pope.  Sforza  had  been  put  in  possession  of  his  dutchy  by  the 
emperor,  but  Charles  had  clogged  this  gift  with  onerous 
conditions,  and  retained,  moreover,  several  strong  places,  which 
he  garrisoned  with  his  own  troops.  The  duke  and  the  chan- 
cellor wished  to  rid  the  country  of  these  encumbrances,  and 
even  to  expel  the  impei'ialists,  as  Charles  had  expelled  the 
French  from  Italy.  Pescara,  the  imperial  commander-in-chief, 
was  known  to  be  incensed  against  the  emperor,  who  had  not 
rewarded  him,  as  he  conceived,  agreeably  to  his  merits,  for 
the  important  service  he  had  rendered  him  by  the  victory  of 
Pavia ;  and  him,  therefore,  the  conspirators  hoped  to  gain 
over  to  their  interest.  Morone,  who  undertook  the  manage- 
ment of  the  plot,  proposed  to  him  to  unite  with  the  states  of 
Italy  against  the  emperor,  with  such  of  his  troops  as  he  could 
bring  over  to  their  party,  and  to  make  such  a  disposition  of 
the  rest  that  they  might  be  easily  overpowered  and  destroyed 
by  the  people ;  and  for  this  service,  the  pope  was  to  reward 
him  with  the  kingdom  of  Naples.  Pescara  listened  with  deep 
attention,  hesitating  whether  to  accept  a  proposition  so  splen- 
did and  yet  so  dangerous ;  but  ultimately,  his  fidelity  or  his 
fear  prevailing,  he  communicated  the  plot  to  his  sovereign, 
arrested  Morone,  and  besieged  the  duke  in  his  citadel.  The 
pope  interceded  for  Sforza,  but  the  emperor  was  most  of  all 
incensed  against  the  pope  ;  and  he  hated  him  the  more  because, 
while  the  plot  was  in  progress,  his  holiness,  determined  to  be 
on  the  side  of  safety,  whatever  might  be  the  issue  of  the  plot, 

*  Schmid's  Gesch.  d.  Deutscheu,  &c.,  vol.  v.  p.  182. 


19ERMAN  llEFORMED   CHURCH.  823 

intimated  to  the  emperor  Jlie  expediency  of  keeping  his  gene- 
rals in  good  humor ;  intending,  by  this  double  perfidy,  if  the 
conspiracy  "were  discovered,  to  have  it  in  his  power  to  say  that 
he  had  no  connection  "with  it.* 

The  emperor  did  not  come  to  Rome,  but  his  friends  came, 
not  by  his  command,  but  of  their  own  will,  not  to  avenge  their 
sovereign,  but  to  please  themselves ;  and  inflicted  on  the  sove- 
reign pontiff  the  chastisement  he  deserved.  At  the  instigation 
of  the  Imperial  ambassador  at  Rovie,  Hugo  de  Moncada,  the 
cardinal  Colonna,  the  rival  and  enemy  of  Clement,  seizing 
the  opportunity  while  the  papal  troops  were  employed  in 
Lomhardy,  made  a  sudden  incursion  into  the  capital,  at  the 
head  of  only  three  thousand  men,  and  plundered  the  Vatican, 
the  church  of  St.  Peter,  and  the  houses  of  the  pope's  ministers 
and  servants.  The  pontiff  fled  into  the  castle  of  St.  Angelo, 
where  he  was  closely  besieged,  and  compelled  to  subscribe  an 
ignominious  peace.  In  less  than  a  year  afterward,  the  impe- 
rial army,  under  the  command  of  Bourbon,  determined  to 
compensate  themselves  for  unpaid  arrears,  marched  to  Rome, 
regarding  the  pope  as  the  chief  author  of  the  war,  and  the 
wealth  of  his  capital  as  a  proper  reward  for  their  services  and 
privations.  The  city  was  taken  by  assault,  all  that  were  met 
were  put  to  the  sword,  and  every  part  of  it  was  plundered  with 
savage  ferocity  and  licentiousness.  The  pope  shut  himself  up, 
together  with  thirteen  cardinals,  the  foreign  ambassadors,  and 
many  persons  of  distinction,  in  the  castle  of  St.  Angelo,  where, 
deprived  of  every  resource,  and  reduced  to  the  last  extremity, 
he  was  compelled  to  surrender,  on  such  terms  as  his  enemy 
chose  to  dictate ;  and,  from  the  6th  of  June,  the  day  of  his 
capitulation,  to  the  6th  of  December,  he  remained  a  prisoner 
of  war  in  the  power  of  the  victors.  His  liberty  was  purchased 
on  very  hard  terms,  after  Rome  had  suffered  almost  unheard 
of  distresses. 

"It  is  impossible,"  says  Robertson,  "to  describe,  or  even 
to  imagine,  the  misery  and  horror  of  the  scene  Avhich  followed 

*  Schmid,  &c.,  p.  176. 


324  HISTORY   OF   THE 

the  capture  of  the  city.  Whatever  a  city  taken  by  storm  can 
dread  from  military  rage,  unrestrained  by  discipline  ;  whatever 
excesses  the  ferocity  of  the  Germans,  the  avarice  of  the  Spa- 
niards, or  the  licentiousness  of  the  Italians  could  commit,  these 
the  wretched  inhabitants  were  obliged  to  suffer.  Churches, 
palaces,  and  the  houses  of  private  persons  were  plundered 
without  distinction.  No  age,  or  character,  or  sex  was  exempt 
from  injury.  Cardinals,  nobles,  priests,  matrons,  virgins  were 
all  the  prey  of  soldiers,  and  at  the  mercy  of  men  deaf  to  the 
voice  of  humanity.  Nor  did  these  outrages  cease,  as  is  usual 
in  towns  carried  by  assault,  when  the  first  fury  of  the  storm 
was  over.  The  imperialists  kept  possession  of  Rome  several 
months,  and,  during  all  that  time,  the  insolence  and  brutality 
of  the  soldiers  hardly  abated.  Their  booty,  in  ready  money 
alone,  amounted  to  a  million  of  ducats :  what  they  raised  by 
ransoms  and  exactions  far  exceeded  that  sum.  Eome,  though 
taken  several  different  times  by  the  northern  nations  who 
overran  the  empire  in  the  fifth  and  sixth  centuries,  was  never 
treated  with  so  much  cruelty  by  the  barbarous  and  heathen 
Huns,  Vandals,  or  Goths,  as  now  by  the  bigoted  subjects  of  a 
Catholic  monarch."* 

All  Europe  was  filled  with  consternation  by  these  events, 
and  devout  Papists  were  everywhere  chilled  with  pious  horror. 
The  pope  thus  found  occupation  enough,  and  his  zealous  ad- 
herents an  interest  sufficiently  absorbing,  to  call  away  their 
attention,  during  these  times  of  affliction,  from  Zurich  and 
her  reformation.     Was  not  this  the  hand  of  God  ? 

Both  the  people  of  this  canton  and  their  rulers  were  now 
resolved  to  submit  no  longer  to  the  debasing  and  unrighteous 
spiritual  bondage  which  they  had  borne  for  ages  ;  no  longer 
to  bow  their  consciences  to  an  earthly  master,  nor  to  let  any 
thing  but  the  ascertained  word  of  God,  Avhich  they  found  in 
the  sacred  volume,  be  the  standard  of  their  faith,  and  their 
rule  of  moral  and  religious  duty. 

The  bishop  of  the  diocese  saw  that  his  authority  was  anni- 

*  Robertson's  Charles  "V.,  book  iv. 


GERMAN   REFORMED    CHURCH.  325 

hilated  as  far  as  the  people  were  concerned ;  but,  reluctant  to 
part  ■with  all  his  power  and  emoluments,  he  made  a  last  effort  to 
hold  the  clergy  to  their  spiritual  allegiance,  and,  if  thej  could 
not  be  kept  in  submission  in  other  things,  to  retain  them  at 
least  so  far  as  his  pecuniary  interest  was  affected.  For  this 
purpose,  he  sent  a  deputation  to  request  the  council  to  cause 
the  customary  consolationes,  and  the  first-fruits  of  their  clergy, 
to  be  remitted  to  him,  and  referred  them  to  a  compact  by 
which,  as  he  alleged,  he  was  entitled  to  these  emoluments. 
His  application  was  coldly  but  respectfully  received,  and  Avas 
referred  to  a  commission  of  learned  men,  who  were  instructed 
to  inquire  into  the  origin  of  the  custom,  and  the  meaning  of 
the  compact  upon  which  the  bishop  relied. 

Toward  the  close  of  the  year  1525,  the  council  of  Zurich 
despatched  their  secretary,  Joachim  Am  Griit,  to  Borne,  to 
solicit  from  the  pope  the  payment  of  the  arrears  which  were 
still  due  to  the  troops  they  had  furnished  for  the  protection 
of  the  ecclesiastical  states,  in  the  campaign  of  1521.  The 
pope  answered,  by  a  letter  dated  December  11,  in  which,  after 
rebuking  their  defection  from  the  church,  he  says :  "If  you 
mean  to  persist  in  these  new  and  impious  errors,  how  can  we 
justly  and  piously  pay  you  any  money,  however  it  may  be  due 
to  you,  since,  to  those  who  have  departed  from  the  true  faith 
not  even  their  OAvn  possessions  ought  of  right  to  be  left?"  A 
tender  conscience,  truly !  As  Zurich,  however,  had  professed 
a  willingness  to  be  better  informed,  if  she  were  in  error,  his 
holiness  promised  to  send  a  learned  man,  for  that  purpose,  to 
Geneva  or  Lausanne,  and  left  to  her  the  appointing  of  the 
time  for  that  purpose.  These  cities  are  situated  in  the  other 
extremity  of  Switzerland,  and  the  roads  to  them  pass  through 
the  cantons  which  had  already  resolved  to  apprehend  Zwingle, 
if  he  were  found  within  their  territories.  Clement  knew  that 
such  a  proposal  was  inadmissible ;  but  he  wanted  a  pretext 
both  for  withholding  payment  and  for  declining  a  religious 
discussion,  and  he  thought  any  thing  preferable  to  a  plain, 
honest  refusal.  In  their  reply,  the  council  say :  "■  With  us, 
yea  is  yea,  and  nay  is  nay.  "When  we  have  given  a  promise, 
2C 


326  HISTORY   OF   THE 

we  perform  it,  without  excuses ;  which  is  the  duty  of  every 
Christian,  whether  it  be  given  to  a  Christian  or  a  Turk."  It 
could  not  be  expected,  they  said,  that  their  learned  men  should 
be  sent  to  a  distant  place ;  the  pope,  on  the  contrary,  ought 
to  send  his  doctors  to  Zuricli,  where,  as  his  legates,  who  had 
recently  been  there,  could  inform  him,  they  would  be  perfectly 
safe.  In  his  answer,  the  pontiff  upbraided  them  with  the  sin 
of  disobeying  the  holy  church,  whose  ordinances  ought  to  be 
kept,  whether  they  were  sanctioned  by  the  Scriptures  or  not ; 
he  rebuked  them,  particularly,  for  controverting  the  real 
bodily  presence  of  Christ  in  the  sacrament,  and  pronounced 
them  apostates,  who  deserved  no  favor.  This  harshness  and 
reproach,  so  manifestly  designed  to  cover  a  pitiful  evasion, 
provoked  some  indignation,  and  the  council  replied  with 
warmth :  "  Your  holiness  thinks  it  is  not  meet  to  show  such 
kindness  to  apostates.  The  gospel  which  is  now  preached 
among  us,  was  preached  before  we  furnished  these  succors  to 
the  apostolic  see,  as  the  reverend  cardinal  of  Sion  and  the 
bishops  of  Pisa  and  Veroli  well  know.  Yea,  it  broke  forth  at 
that  time  with  greater  force  than  now,  so  far  as  the  Roman 
see  was  concerned ;  and  a  strenuous  opposition  was  then  made 
to  the  expedition  of  the  troops,  which  we  granted,  notwith- 
standing, because  we  were  desirous  to  observe  the  faith  of  our 
treaty.  Although  we  then  had  the  same  faith  as  now,  we 
were  not  then,  when  our  aid  was  wanted,  stigmatized  as  an 
apostate  and  faithless  people,  but  were  honored  with  lofty 
titles.  But  now,  when  we  ask  for  payment,  things  are  brought 
forward  that  were  not  thought  of  in  the  time  of  your  need. 
If  payment  be  refused,  your  holiness  may  rightly  sur- 
mise that  we  may  be  provoked  to  undertake  something  against 
the  cities  of  Parma  and  Plaeentia,  which  were  pledged  to  us 
as  security  for  our  remuneration.  The  times  are  not  always 
the  same — changes  are  taking  place  every  hour."* 

Such  language,  addressed  to  the  sovereign  pontiff,  might,  in 
former  times,  have  brought  upon  Zurich,  or  upon  her  council 

*  Hottinger,  p.  281,  &c. 


GERMAN   REFORMED    CHURCH.  327 

at  least,  a  bull  of  excommunication,  or  an  interdict ;  but  such 
a  punishment  would  now  have  been  a  pretty  harmless  ven- 
geance here.  The  pope,  moreover,  was  at  this  time  intent 
upon  his  purpose  of  expelling  the  imperialists  from  Italy,  and 
in  too  much  dread  of  the  present  power  of  the  emperor  to  be 
willing  to  add  Zurich  to  the  side  of  this  formidable  enemy. 
The  council,  doubtless,  knew  that  Clement  relied  mueh  upon 
the  league  which  he  had  formed,  and  to  which  he  hoped  soon 
to  add  the  king  o^  France;  and  they  could  hardly  doubt  that 
he  intended  next  to  let  Zurich  feel  his  vengeance,  if  he  suc- 
ceeded in  his  present  plans ;  and  they  reminded  him,  there- 
fore, of  the  uncertainty  of  human  counsels.  They  were  fully 
aware  that  it  was  not  then  in  their  power  to  attempt  any  thing 
against  the  cities  of  Parma  and  Placentia,  and  that  the  pope 
knew  it  as  well  as  they ;  but  they  thought  proper  to  intimate 
that  his  plans  would  probably  fail,  and  their  own  situation 
might  soon  be  diiFerent  from  what  it  was.  Such,  they  trusted 
in  God,  would  be  the  result ;  and  this  confidence  in  divine 
providence  gave  them  boldness  both  to  maintain  their  position 
and  to  speak  with  the  utmost  freedom,  even  to  the  pope  him- 
self, amidst  all  the  present  dangers. 

As  Rome,  in  her  present  circumstances,  could  lend  no 
physical  aid  to  the  hostile  cantons  againt  Zurich,  and  durst 
not  even  interfere  directly  at  all,  the  cantons  were  necessarily 
left  to  the  exertion  of  their  own  strength.  They  were,  indeed, 
abundantly  able  to  crush  the  single  state  of  Zurich,  if  they 
had  been  perfectly  united  in  counsel  and  all  equally  zealous 
for  the  extermination  of  the  Reformed  doctrine  :  but  here  was 
the  main  difiiculty.  To  bring  all  the  cantons  to  one  mind, 
and  to  inflame  their  zeal  for  the  doctrine  and  rites  of  their 
holy  mother,  the  church,  was  the  primary  object  which  the 
votaries  of  Rome,  both  at  home  and  abroad,  were  laboring  to 
accomplish.  Much  had  already  been  effected :  the  twelve 
cantons  had  been  brought  so  far  as  to  separate  themselves 
from  Zurich  in  their  national  diets,  and  to  insist  on  her  re- 
turn to  the  faith  and  worship  of  their  fathers,  so  far,  at  least, 
as  to  restore  the  celebration  of  the  mass  ;  but  they  were  not 


62b  HISTORY    OF   THE 

prepared  to  go  farther,  and  to  strike  a  blow  that  would  give 
effect  to  their  demands  :  neither  were  they  all  even  prepared 
to  let  a  part  of  the  confederacy  kindle  a  civil  war  for  that 
end.  Zurich  professed  her  willingness  to  be  better  informed, 
and  to  yield  if  she  were  proved  to  be  in  error.  Should  she 
be  condemned,  and  punished,  too,  without  being  heard,  and 
without  an  attempt  to  convince  her?  She  protested,  in  the 
most  solemn  manner,  her  unaltered  attachment  to  the  con- 
federacy, and  her  constant  readiness  to  perform  whatever 
their  covenant  enjoined.  Should  her  difference  on  the  subject 
of  religion,  and  her  rejection  of  rites  and  customs,  many  of 
which  we  ourselves  acknowledge  to  be  corrupt,  be  a  sufficient 
cause  to  involve  her  in  ruin,  and  to  bring  upon  the  confederacy 
the  calamities  of  a  religious  vrar  ?  These  and  other  questions 
might  be  asked,  and,  being  asked,  presented  difficulties  that 
were  not  easily  removed  :  and,  to  some  of  these  cantons,  the 
difficulties  might  appear  more  serious,  because  some  of  their 
own  subjects,  and,  among  these,  some  of  the  most  worthy,  were 
infected  with  the  same  doctrines,  and  would  necessarily  be 
involved  in  the  same  punishment.  To  overcome  these  difficul- 
ties, and  to  bring  the  twelve  cantons  to  the  striking  point  of 
religious  zeal,  was,  therefore,  the  great  desideratum,  and  the 
object  for  which  every  exertion  was  to  be  made.  As  to  the 
means,  the  principal  actors  had  already  settled  down  in  the 
belief,  that  nothing  would  be  so  effectual  as  a  solemn  public 
disputation  that  would  issue  in  the  discomfiture  of  the  re- 
formers. If  the  leaders  of  the  heresy  were  defeated  in  such 
a  contest,  and  were  thereupon  punished  as  heretics,  their  fol- 
lowers might  be  brought  back  from  their  wanderings,  and  the 
obstinate  compelled  to  renounce  their  errors  ;  and,  if  Zurich 
should  still  hold  out,  all  the  cantons  might  then  be  united  in  a 
crusade  against  the  convicted  and  incorrigible  heretics.  Such 
a  disputation  was,  therefore,  proposed  by  the  Papists,  in  1524, 
notwithstanding  their  former  violent  condemnation  of  such  a 
measure  ;  and  being  then  declined  by  Zwingle  and  the  govern- 
ment of  Zurich,  for  the  reasons  already  noticed  elsewhere,  it 
■was  now  proposed  again,  and  urged  with  great  zeal  and  per- 


GERMAN   REFORMED    CHURCH.  329 

tinacity.  The  Papist  party  were  the  more  urgent  for  such  a 
disputation  from  the  confidence  they  placed  in  the  eminent 
champion  who  was  ah-eady  engaged  to  encounter  Zwincrlo  and 
his  associates  in  the  contest,  the  celebrated  chancellor  of 
Ingoldstadt,  John  Eckius :  and  this  urgency  was,  doubtless, 
not  a  little  increased  by  the  moral  certainty  that,  if  Zwingle 
should  appear  in  Baden  or  I/azern^  and  acknowledge  the 
representatives  of  the  twelve  cantons  as  judges  of  the  dispute, 
he  would  not  be  suffered  to  return  to  Zurich^  or  to  trouble 
the  church  any  longer ;  but,  if  he  should  decline  the  challenge, 
he  might,  at  least,  be  exposed  as  one  who  shunned  the  light, 
and  was  afraid  to  meet  an  antagonist  whose  strength  was 
equal  to  his  own. 

Eckius,  who  was  now  the  principal  actor,  gave  no  answer 
to  the  invitation  given  to  him  by  the  council  of  Zurich  in  the 
preceding  year,  but  he  maintained  an  active  correspondence 
with  the  confederates  since  that  time.*  His  principal  coadjutors 
were  the  bishop  of  Constance,  and  his  vicar,  John  Faber.  The 
latter  attended,  in  person,  a  diet  of  the  confederates  at  Luzern, 
where  a  plan  seems  to  have  been  digested,  in  pursuance  of 
which  Eckius  addressed  a  public  letter  to  the  confederacy, 
teeming  with  invective  against  the  Reformed  doctrine  and  its 
ministers,  invoking  the  cantons  to  exterminate  this  pestilential 
heresy,  and,  without  taking  notice  of  the  letter  and  passport, 
transmitted  to  him  by  express  from  Zurich,  or  of  Zwingle's 
reasons  for  declining  his  former  challenge,  reiterating  the  pro- 
posal to  dispute  with  him,  before  judges  to  be  appointed  by 
the  confederates,  and  to  submit  himself  to  their  verdict. 
The  following  is  a  translation  of  his  letter,  dated  October 
28,  1525 : 

"  Noble,  strict,  dignified,  honorable,  circumspect,  and  wise 
sirs,  and  good  friends  !  My  prompt  and  cheerful  service  being 
first  tendered,  most  gracious,  commanding  sirs,  I  exhorted 
your  grace,  strictness,  firmness,  and  wisdom,  most  urgently, 

*  Fueslin's  Beitrlige,  vol.  i.  p.  1G4,  note  24. 
2c2  42 


330  HISTORY   OF  THE 

in  the  past  year,  to  abide  in  the  true,  ancient,  undoubted 
Christian  faith,  and  not  to  let  yourselves  be  seduced  by  the 
erroneous,  seductive,  heretical  docti4ne  of  Ulric  Zwingle ;  as  I 
then  offered  to  prove  it,  by  the  Holy  Scriptures,  in  a  disputa- 
tion with  Zwingle,  before  your  excellencies,  or  judges  appointed 
by  you,  which,  however,  Zwingle,  as  one  who  shuns  the  light 
and  walks  in  darkness,  declined  accepting,  as  I  have  shown  at 
length  on  a  former  occasion.     I  have  heard  nothing  in  a  long 
time,  except  (God  be  praised !)  that  most  of  your  grace  and 
favor  still  continue  firm  in  the  true  faith ;   those,  on  the  con- 
trary, who  have  separated  themselves  from  Christian  unity, 
and  have  adopted  erroneous,  heretical  doctrine,  fall  continually 
into  more  and  more  grievous  error  and  blasphemous  heresy ; 
inasmuch  as,  not  only  the  Anabaptists,  that    have  risen  in 
several  places  of  the  confederacy  and  its  neighborhood,  but 
also  Zwingle  and  Hausschein,  (who  calls  himself  Oecolampa- 
dius,)  have  fallen  into  the  dreadful  heresy  of  denying  that  the 
true  body  of  our  dear  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  his  precious  holy 
blood,  are  contained  in  the  most  venerable  sacrament  of  the 
altar !     Thus  shall  the  blind  heretics,  who  have  lost  the  eye 
of  faith,  fall  into  the  gloomy  pit  of  all  heresy.     Your  grace 
and  favor  may  easily  infer,  from  the  fact  that  they  are  so  at 
variance  with  themselves  and  with  one  another,  what  a  false, 
devilish  faith  the  hardened  men  teach ;  for  while  Zwingle  and 
Hausschein  formerly  would  not  admit  that  the  most  venerable 
sacrament  is  a  sacrifice  in  the  office  of  the  holy  mass,  they 
taught,  nevertheless,  that  the  sacrament  of  the  body  and  blood 
of  Christ  ought  to  be  highly  reverenced ;  so  that  Zwingle,  in 
the  exposition  of  the  eighteenth  article  of  his  theses,  upbraids 
the  Papists  with  their  knavish  outcry,  (as  he  calls  it,)  that  he 
wished  to  make  nothing  of  the  body  of  our  dear  Lord  Christ, 
and  to  rob  mankind  of  the  heavenly  food.     Now,  whereas  in 
the  year  1523,  in  the  month  of  July,  he  would  not  suffer  such 
a  thing  to  be  said,  yet,  two  years  later,  he  falls  into  it  with 
the  utmost  insanity,  and  takes  away,  not  only  the  mass  of  the 
church,  but  even  his  own  fictitious,  heretical  mass,  and,  as  far 
as  he  can,  robs  mankind  of  the  heavenly  food.     So  loose,  airy, 


GERMAN   REFORMED    CHURCH.  331 

and  fickle-minded  are  the  heretics ;  yet  they  cry,  The  rock  of 
undoubted,  eternal  truth  is  with  us  I  Zwingle,  moreover,  does 
not  consider  how  highly  he  then  lauded  Luther,  saying,  he  is 
an  able  servant  of  God,  and  investigates  the  Scriptures  with 
as  much  earnestness  as  any  one  on  earth  within  a  thousand 
years,  and  with  a  manful  and  unshaken  courage :  for  if  Zwin- 
gle values  Luther  so  highly,  why  does  he  not  follow  Luther, 
who,  with  clear  Scriptural  testimonies,  overturns  Carlstadt's 
heresy  respecting  the  most  venerable  sacrament  ?  Yea,  though 
Carlstadt  abandoned  this  heresy  again,  and  voluntarily  revoked 
and  denied  it,  yet  do  I  hear  that  Zwingle,  in  Zurich^  and 
Hausschein,  in  Basel,  seduce  many  thousands  into  the  horrible 
heresy  of  not  believing  that  the  true  body  and  blood  of  Christ 
are  contained  in  the  venerable  sacrament,  just  as  the  blind 
Jews  have  these  many  years  assailed  the  most  venerable 
sacrament. 

"  Therefore,  gracious,  strict,  firm,  and  circumspect  sirs,  I 
beseech  your  grace,  firmness,  and  favor,  for  God's  sake,  that 
you  sufi"er  not  yourselves,  nor  your  allies  and  subjects,  to  be 
seduced  by  this  heretical,  blasphemous  doctrine.  You  have 
seen,  alas !  what  miserable  fruit  this  heresy  has  borne  in 
Germany,  namely,  all  manner  of  divisions,  anger,  disobedience, 
factions,  insurrections,  ruin  of  country  and  people,  extinction 
of  all  divine  worship  and  all  probity,  and  also  all  wantonness, 
and  every  sin  and  vice.  Behold  the  inconstancy  and  divisions 
of  the  heretics !  How  many  sects  have,  in  so  short  a  time, 
risen  up  among  them.  Image-breakers,  Anabaptists,  Faction- 
ists  ;  Despaircrs,  who  say  that  Christ  doubted  and  sinned  upon 
the  cross ;  Ilell-crucifiers,  who  say  that  Christ  sufi'ercd  a  little 
on  earth,  but  in  hell  the  devil  first  crucified  him  aright ;  and 
many  other  sects !  How  many  kinds  of  masses  have  they 
everywhere  introduced  !  and,  finally,  on  the  Rhine,  they  have 
made  a  banquet  of  it !  Now,  indeed,  these  things  continue 
only  in  some  of  the  cities  of  upper  Germany ;  for,  last  summer, 
I  travelled  through  the  Low  Countries  to  England,  and  ^jassed 
through  more  than  seventy  towns,  of  which  not  more  than 
three  were  Lutheran,  and  of  the  three,  two  had  yet  made  no 


332  HISTORY   OF   THE 

change  in  the  offices  of  the  church.  Therefore,  I  beseech 
your  grace  and  friendship,  for  God's  sake,  as  courageous, 
honest  men,  to  maintain  manfully  the  true,  ancient,  undoubted 
Christian  faith,  and  to  root  out  and  exterminate  this  false, 
seductive,  blasphemous  heresy.  What  service  I,  poor  priest, 
can  render  therein,  I  will  do  cordially  and  with  the  utmost 
diligence.  Especially  shall  I  be  entirely  willing,  if  Zwingle 
or  Hausschein  should  consent  to  dispute  before  an  appointed 
judge,  in  your  presence,  my  lords  of  the  common  confederacy, 
and  should  agree  to  abide  by  the  decision  of  the  same,  as  I 
offered  twice  in  the  past  year,  to  appear,  at  your  request,  at 
any  place  you  may  appoint,  and  to  conduct  the  disputation  on 
Scriptural  grounds,  in  the  confident  hope  that  God,  in  his 
mercy,  will  aid  the  truth  and  the  holy  faith.  Your  grace, 
firmness,  and  favor  may  look  to  me  with  entire  confidence  for 
any  other  service,  also,  that  I  may  be  able  to  render  in  these 
matters  of  the  faith.  May  Almighty  God  have  your  grace, 
strictness,  firmness,  and  wisdom  in  his  keeping  and  protection  ! 
Given  at  Ingoldstadt,  in  Bavaria,  on  the  day  of  the  apostles 
Simon  and  Jude,  1525. 

"  Your  grace  and  lordships'  obedient,  willing 

"John  von  Eck,  Doctor,  &c."* 

This  inflammatory  letter  was,  doubtless,  designed  for  the  end 
to  which  it  was  so  manifestly  adapted  ;  namely,  to  make  the 
Reformed  doctrine  and  its  ministers  and  abettors  in  the  hiirh- 
est  degree  hateful,  and  to  kindle  a  conflagration,  in  the  rage 
and  violence  of  which  both  the  one  and  the  other  might  be 
consumed.  What  the  cost  might  be,  how  much  blood  and 
treasure  might  be  wasted,  how  much  desolation  and  misery 
might  be  caused,  was  not  a  matter  of  calculation  with  this 
humane  theological  doctor,  when  the  question  was,  what  the 
hierarchy  had  at  stake  to  be  lost  or  gained  by  the  fate  of  the 
Reformation.  The  very  Avorst  feature  in  the  doctrine  of  the 
Swiss  reformers,  the  heresy  that  awakened  so   much   pious 

*  Fueslin,  vol.  i.  p.  161,  &o. 


GERMAN   REFORMED   CHURCH.  833 

horror  in  the  -writer,  was  Zwingle's  explanation  of  the  Lord's 
supper,  which  would  not  confess  either,  with  the  Papist,  that 
the  bread  is  changed  into  the  body  of  Christ,  or,  with  Luther, 
that  it  contains  the  Lord's  body.  This  was,  in  the  writer's 
view,  the  most  prominent  feature  and  the  very  climax  of  the 
false,  seductive,  blasphemous  heresy,  which  he  invoked  the 
confederates,  with  such  solemn  earnestness,  to  root  out  and 
exterminate.  A  valuable  testimony  this  to  the  freedom  of  the 
Reformers  from  all  excesses,  and  the  purity  of  the  doctrine 
which  they  taught.  In  his  reply  to  this  letter,  written  some 
time  afterward,  and  addressed  to  the  twelve  cantons,  Zwingle 
remarked  upon  the  design  to  appoint  a  judge  of  the  con- 
troversy, to  whose  decision  the  two  parties  in  the  proposed 
disputation  should  submit:  "How  shall  we  take  it,  that  you 
desire  to  appoint  a  Swiss  judge  to  sit  in  judgment  upon  the 
Scripture  ?  How  dare  you  lend  your  counsel  and  aid  to  this  ? 
Have  you  wholly  forgotten  the  papal  prerogatives,  which 
allow  none  but  the  pope  himself  to  explain,  rule,  and  interpret 
the  Scripture  ?"  L^pon  this,  he  produced  various  arguments 
to  show  that  the  word  of  God  is  subject  to  no  human  judge, 
but  the  word,  on  the  contrary,  judges  every  human  being.* 
He  declined  the  challenge,  as  he  had  done  before,  and  for  the 
same  reasons  :  he  would  not  trust  himself  in  the  power  of  his 
enemies,  who  had  already  sworn  his  destruction,  in  such  a 
place  as  Baden  or  Luzern ;  he  would  not  dispute  before  a 
judge  appointed  by  the  confederates ;  he  would  not  submit 
his  cause  to  the  fallible  judgment  of  any  human  being,  but 
would  have  the  Bible  alone  to  decide  it;  he  would  meet 
Eckius  in  Zurich,  where  both  would  be  equally  safe.  The 
chancellor's  letter,  therefore,  failed  to  accomplish  this  end ; 
which,  however,  it  is  plain  that  nobody  had  expected  from  it. 
It  was  much  more  mortifying  that  it  failed,  also,  in  its  main 
object ;  for,  though  it  nourished  an  ignorant  bigotry  and  fed 
its  malignant  passions,  it  did  not  arm  the  Papist  cantons  with 

*  Zwingli  in  Epist.  ad  XII.  Pages  de  Disputatione  Badensi. 


334  HISTORY   OF   THE 

sufficient  rage  to  overwhelm  Zurich^  and  to  root  out  her 
heresy  bj  fire  and  sword. 

The  union?  of  the  twelve  cantons  for  the  maintenance  of  the 
catholic  faith  against  Zurich,  though  so  imposing,  at  first,  in 
appearance,  was  neither  close  nor  durable.  The  six  cantons 
of  Luzern,  Uri,  Schweitz,  Zug,  Unterwalden,  and  Frihurg^ 
and  especially  the  first  five,  were  decidedly  hostile,  and  dis- 
posed to  try  the  last  resort ;  the  other  six  were  not  prepared 
for  extremities.  Of  the  latter,  the  largest  and  most  powerful 
was  Bern,  whose  territory  constituted  a  third  part  of  the 
whole  confederation,  and  whose  decision  for  Zurich,  or  against 
her,  was,  therefore,  likely  to  determine  the  course  of  all  the 
rest.  The  six  most  hostile  cantons,  therefore,  endeavored  to 
attach  her  firmly  to  their  policy ;  and  for  this  object,  they  had 
solicited  her,  by  special  embassies,  to  unite  with  them  in  their 
meetings  for  the  transaction  of  religious  afiairs.  Both  Bern 
and  Soleure  were,  in  this  manner,  prevailed  on  to  send  their 
representatives  to  these  assemblies.  But  Bern,  foreseeing  the 
consequences  to  which  the  bitterness  that  prevailed  in  these 
meetings  was  likely  to  impel  them,  and  dreading  the  horrors 
of  a  civil  war,  resolved  to  make  a  last  efibrt  to  prevail  on 
Zurich  to  comply,  at  least,  in  some  measure,  with  the  demands 
of  the  six  cantons,  and  thus  to  avert  the  impending  calamity. 
With  this  in  view,  she  sent  an  embassy  to  Zurich,  on  the  29th 
of  November,  1525,  with  instructions  to  persuade  this  canton 
to  reinstate  the  mass,  or,  at  least,  to  permit  one  daily  mass 
to  be  celebrated  in  the  city,  whether  it  were  attended  by  any 
communicants  or  not.  As  to  images  and  other  ceremonies, 
they  w^ould  not  insist  upon  the  restoration  of  them.  They 
admonished  Zurich,  also,  to  remember  how  much  the  con- 
federacy had  prospered  under  the  ancient  faith,  and  how  all 
the  attempts  of  foreign  princes  against  them  had  been  de- 
feated ;  whereas  now  these  princes  rejoiced  at  their  dissen- 
sions, and  would  take  occasion,  from  their  divisions,  to  plot 
their  overthrow. 

To  these  expostulations,  Zurich  replied  by  her  own  am- 
bassadors, whom  she  sent  to  Bern  on  the  21st  of  December. 


GEKMAN   REFORMED    CHURCH.  335 

They  were  tlic  burgo-master  Eoust,  and  Rudolp  Lavater. 
These  ambassadors  appeared,  on  that  day,  before  the  councils 
and  the  citizens  of  Bern,  and  there  pleaded  for  their  country 
and  their  religion.  "Zurich,"  said  they,  "is  conscious  of  no 
other  design  than  that  of  faithfully  observing  the  covenants, 
as  it  becomes  upright  confederates,  and  will  always  be  willing 
and  ready  to  do  so.  She  has,  therefore,  given  no  just  cause 
to  her  confederates  to  separate  themselves  from  her.  She 
has,  moreover,  long  since,  found  that  neither  spiritual  nor 
secular  princes  are  faithful  and  well-disposed  toward  the  con- 
federacy any  farther  than  it  is  their  interest  to  be  so.  Their 
custom  has  been  to  lead  away  many  of  the  confederates  to  be 
slaughtered  in  foreign  wars,  and  to  see  them  perish  without 
compassion.  Appearances  indicate  that  certain  princes  are 
seeking  to  distract  the  confederates,  that  they  may  the  more 
easily  overpower  them.  If  the  confederates  think  that  Zurich  ^ 
is  acting  contrary  to  the  word  of  God,  be  it  remembered  that 
she  has  long  since  been  ready  to  answer  all  inquirers,  and  to 
accept  information  from  others.  Our  covenants  have  nowhere 
said  that,  if  any  one  of  the  cantons  shall  adhere  to  the  word 
of  God,  and  shall  conform  thereto,  and  do  what  God  com- 
mands, it  shall,  for  that  reason,  be  severed  from  the  rest,  and 
excluded  as  a  violator  of  the  Christian  faith  and  of  the 
covenants.  If  any  of  the  cantons  refuse  to  sit  with  Zurich  in 
the  diets,  for  the  transaction  of  business  in  which  she  has  a 
common  interest  with  them,  she  must  leave  the  matter  with 
God.  She  entertains,  however,  a  good  hope  that  God,  the 
Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost,  in  whose  name  our  covenants 
are  made,  will  not  forsake  her,  and  will  permit  her  in  the  end 
to  sit  and  to  abide  with  him.  As  to  reinstating  the  mass,  or 
permitting  one  daily  mass  to  be  said,  on  the  ground  that  our 
forefathers  sought  and  found  their  salvation  therein,  and  that 
we  ought  not  to  tliink  they  have  perished,  the  thing  is 
impossible.  The  judgment  upon  our  forefathers  must  be  left 
to  God :  what  they  did  was  done  with  a  good  intention ;  they 
knew  no  better,  and  we  may,  therefore,  hope  that  this  error 
did  not  prevent  their  salvation.     But  the  mass  is  opposed  to 


336  HISTORY   OP   THE 

the  holy  supper  which  Christ  himself  has  instituted  :  it  was 
introduced  for  the  sake  of  gain,  some  centuries  after  the  death 
of  Christ ;  and  God  suffered  such  errors  to  prevail  for  the 
punishment  of  the  sins  of  men.  It  was  painful  to  Zurich  to 
abolish  the  mass ;  but,  when  it  was  found  to  be  contrary  to  the 
Holy  Scriptures,  it  would  have  been  still  more  painful  to 
retain  it.  If,  for  the  sake  of  preserving  peace  with  the  con- 
federates, Zurich  should  permit  a  daily  mass  to  be  said,  discord 
would  arise  among  her  own  citizens,  who  are  now  peaceable 
and  harmonious.  Finally,  they  entreated  Bern  not  to  separate 
herself  from  Zurich,  in  either  her  spiritual  or  her  temporal 
interests,  but  to  abide  with  Zurich  as  Zurich  would  abide 
with  her."* 

The  same  embassy  repaired  to  Soleure,  where  similar  repre- 
sentations were  made.  What  the  impression  was  in  the  last- 
named  canton,  is  not  stated.  Bern  felt  the  force  of  this 
appeal  to  her  reason  and  her  sense  of  justice.  She  heard  the 
rational,  calm,  and  respectful  remonstrance  of  the  ambassadors, 
with  attention  and  kindness,  and  promised  to  use  her  influence 
with  the  other  cantons  to  prevent  the  apprehended  violence ; 
and  this  promise  she  redeemed  in  good  faith.  A  few  days 
after  these  transactions,  when  the  representatives  of  the  six 
cantons,  in  a  diet  assembled  at  Luzern,  were  discussing 
measures  to  compel  the  people  of  Thurgau  to  abjure  the 
Reformed  doctrines,  and  to  return  to  the  Papist  ceremonies, 
the  delegate  of  Beini  interposed  a  communication,  that  the 
canton  which  he  represented  would,  indeed,  perform  all  its 
engagements  to  the  confederates,  agreeably  to  their  covenants, 
but  was  resolved  to  undertake  nothing  of  an  unfriendly  nature 
against  Zurich^  and  would  neither  separate  itself  from  that 
canton,  nor  exclude  its  delegate  from  the  diets :  and  as  to  the 
people  of  Thurgau,  he  exhorted  the  diet  to  use  no  violence 
against  those  who  had  adopted  the  exceptionable  doctrine,  and 
to  leave  such  cases  as  they  deemed  worthy  of  punishment  to 
the   ordinary  administration   of  the  laws.     This  unexpected 

*  Hottinger,  p.  256,  &c. 


GERMAN   REFORMED    CHURCH.  337 

turn  disconcerted  the  counsels  and  broke  up  the  plan  of  the 
hostile  cantons  for  the  present ;  the  horrors  of  a  civil  war  -were 
averted,  and  Zurich  was  spared  from  a  trial  which  she  was 
not  yet  able  to  sustain.*  Here  we  may  perceive  the  hand  of 
God  turning  the  hearts  of  princes,  overruling  their  counsels, 
and  setting  at  nought  the  wisdom  and  the  purposes  of  men, 
that  his  own  counsel  may  stand,  and  his  own  purpose  be 
accomplished.  "  He  taketh  the  wise  in  their  own  craftiness," 
and  demonstrates  that  with  him  their  wisdom  is  but  foolishness. 

Zurich  improved  the  respite  which  was  thus  obtained  to 
prosecute  her  reformation,  and  to  complete  what  remained  to 
be  done  in  removing  abuses  which  the  long  reign  of  supersti- 
tion and  ignorance  had  accumulated.  The  number  of  holidays 
had  been  so  increased  as  to  intrench  very  seriously  upon  the 
duty  of  industry  and  the  interests  of  the  commonwealth. 
Most  of  these  were  now  abolished.  For  the  present,  the 
government  retained,  besides  the  Lord's  day,  and  the  days  set 
apart  to  commemorate  the  birth,  circumcision,  crucifixion, 
resurrection,  and  ascension  of  Christ,  and  the  efi'usion  of  the 
Holy  Ghost,  which  are  still  observed  in  the  German  churches,, 
those  of  Candlemas,  Annunciation  and  Ascension  of  Mary, 
Mary  Magdalen,  St.  Stephen,  St.  John  the  Baptist,  the  Twelve 
Apostles,  All  Saints,  and  St.  Felix  and  Regula.  But,  after 
other  cantons  had  received  the  Reformed  doctrine,  they  set 
the  example,  and  were  followed  by  Zurich,  in  abolishing  all 
holidays  that  were  consecrated  to  the  memory  of  mere  crea- 
tures. The  observance  of  the  Lord's  day  was  enforced  by 
fines,  and,  when  these  were  found  insufiicient,  by  heavier 
penalties;  and  the  amusements  of  play,  dancing,  and  other 
frivolities,  which  had  been  usual  on  sacred  days,  were  strictly 
forbidden.  Labor  was,  however,  permitted  in  cases  of  neces- 
sity, particularly  in  the  seasons  of  hay-making,  harvest,  and 
vintage. 

The  days  which  are  set  apart  to  commemorate  the  great 
events  in  the  history  of  the  world's  redemption  are  still  ob- 


*  Hottinger,  p.  258. 
2D  43 


338  HISTORY   OF   THE 

served  in  the  German  Reformed  and  other  Protestant  churches. 
Objection  has  been  made  to  this  custom,  on  the  ground  that 
there  is  no  divine  warrant  for  it  in  the  Holy  Scripture,  and 
that  these  days  are  grossly  abused  and  jirostituted  to  dissipa- 
tion and  idleness.  As  to  the  latter  ground,  the  same  objection 
will  weigh  as  much  against  the  observance  of  the  Lord's  day, 
which  the  community  in  general  spend  very  unprofitably,  and 
the  greater  part  of  them  consume  more  sinfully  than  any  other 
portion  of  the  week :  and  with  regard  to  the  former,  we  shall 
only  say,  we  do  not  see  the  necessity  of  a  divine  command :  it 
is  sufficient  if  it  can  be  shown  that  the  custom  is  in  accordance 
with  the  design  of  the  gospel,  and  militates  against  no  ascer- 
tained duty.  The  gospel  designs  to  produce  holiness,  and,  so 
far  as  the  church  is  concerned,  to  edify  her  members  in  Chris- 
tian knowledge  and  virtue  ;  and  there  is,  undoubtedly,  a  fitness 
to  promote  this  design  in  the  custom  which  observes  certain 
appointed  seasons  to  commemorate  the  great  events  in  the 
history  of  our  redemption,  as  so  many  manifestations  of  the 
richness  of  divine  mercy  toward  our  fallen  race.  The  Chris- 
tian dispensation  has  not,  like  the  Jewish,  defined  exactly  the 
times  and  the  ceremonies  of  every  particular  act  of  religious 
duty,  and  left  nothing  to  the  choice  and  the  wisdom  of  the 
church.  It  considers  the  church  as  having  attained  to  man- 
hood, and  being  no  longer  a  minor  under  tutelage,  and  grants 
to  her,  as  such,  a  liberty  of  choice  in  every  thing  relating  to 
the  mere  form  of  worship  ;  provided  it  be  in  accordance  with 
the  design  of  the  gospel,  and  not  repugnant  to  any  ascertained 
institution  or  commandment.  The  setting  apart  of  certain 
days  to  commemorate  the  birth,  the  sufiierings  and  death,  the 
resurrection,  and  the  ascension  of  our  Lord,  and  the  effusion 
of  the  Holy  Ghost,  belongs  to  the  manner  in  which  the  church 
is  moved,  by  a  sense  of  obligation,  and  by  the  promptings  of 
love  and  thankfulness,  to  address  her  worship  to  the  Deity, 
and  is  as  much  in  her  own  power  as  any  thing  else  respecting 
which  God  has  left  her  free,  and  fully  as  much  as  the  appoint- 
ing of  days  of  thanksgiving  or  of  humiliation  and  prayer.  We 
have,  moreover,  in  the  New  Testament,  the  example  of  Jesus, 


GERMAN   REFOilMED    CHURCH.  339 

Vfho  honored  by  liis  presence  in  the  temple  the  solemnities  of 
the  feast  of  dedication,  a  festival  -which  was  instituted  by  Judas 
Maccabeus,  without  a  divine  command,  to  commemorate  the 
new  dedication  of  the  temple  to  the  service  of  Jehovah,  after 
it  had  been  recovered  from  the  Gentiles.  He  was  there  as  he 
was  at  the  feast  of  the  passover,  and  as  he  was  at  the  feast  of 
Pentecost,  or  at  the  feast  of  tabernacles,  at  other  times ;  and 
he  showed  by  his  presence  that  an  institution  which  is  conso- 
nant with  the  design  of  God's  dispensation,  and  with  the 
destination  of  his  church  as  a  nursery  of  holiness,  is  accept- 
able to  him,  though  there  be  no  warrant  for  it  in  the  Bible 
expressed  in  so  many  words.  It  will  not  be  denied  that  any 
private  Christian  may  appropriate  certain  days  for  pious 
meditation  on  particular  subjects ;  and  if  one  person  may  do 
so,  why  may  not  many,  and  why  not  an  entire  church  or  reli- 
gious denomination?  And  if  one  person  may  be  profited  by 
such  a  practice,  is  not  the  union  of  many  persons  in  the  same 
object,  at  the  same  time,  still  more  adapted  to  elevate  the 
mind,  and  to  fill  the  heart  with  pious  and  holy  emotions  ?  We 
do  not  pretend  that  the  observance  of  these  festivals  is  obli- 
gatory upon  churches  that  do  not  choose  to  have  them ; 
nor  do  we  mean  that  the  keeping  of  them  as  holy  seasons  is 
so  the  duty  of  the  members  of  any  church,  that  they  sin  by 
omitting  to  do  so,  if  they  can  be  edified  as  well  without  them, 
and  if  their  omission  does  no  harm  to  their  brethren.  Least 
of  all  would  we  impose  these  festivals  upon  the  unbelieving 
world.  The  world  has  no  Christianity,  and,  consequently,  no 
Christian  festivals ;  neither  has  it  a  Christian  Sunday,  Lord's 
day,  or  Sabbath.  Christian  holidays  belong  only  to  the 
Christian  church,  and  the  observance  of  them  is  not  so  much 
the  duty  as  it  is  the  privilege  of  Christians  ;  but  what  we  mean 
is,  that  where  the  Lord's  people  choose  to  approach  him  in 
this  way,  and  in  this  way  to  seek  their  edification,  and  to 
bring  their  offerings  of  gratitude  and  praise  to  him,  no  one 
who  has  chosen  another  way,  or  no  way  at  all,  has  a  right  to 
rebuke  them.  "  Let  every  man  be  fully  persuaded  in  his  own 
mind." — Rom.  xiv. 


BOOK  III. 


THE  SPREAD  OF  THE   REFORMATION   IN   OTHER  PARTS   OF  SWITZERLAND 
AND  THE   CONTIGUOUS  COUNTRIES. 


SECTION  I CHAPTER  I. 

During  these  transactions  in  Zurich,  the  spirit  of  her 
reformation  was  extending  itself  into  the  other  cantons  of 
Switzerland  and  their  dependencies,  and  spreading  over  the 
contiguous  parts  of  Germany  and  France.  Among  the  first 
which  its  influence  reached,  was  the  city  and  canton  of  Basel, 
This  city,  however,  was  not  wholly  indebted  for  its  reforma- 
tion to  Zurich :  it  reflected  both  the  rays  of  Wittenberg  and 
of  Zurich,  and  shone  also  in  part  by  its  own  light,  and  was 
thus  itself  a  luminary  of  no  little  brightness,  that  rose  upon 
its  appropriate  region. 

Basel,  Avhich  was  formerly  a  free  imperial  city,  became,  in 
1501,  with  its  dependent  territory,  a  member  of  the  Helvetic 
confederation,  and  ranked  as  the  capital  of  one  of  the  cantons. 
Its  population,  which  is  now  about  sixteen  thousand,  was  then 
more  than  twice  that  number.  It  was  the  city  of  books  and 
learning  for  Switzerland,  and  the  residence  of  a  galaxy  of 
eminent  men,  distinguished  by  learning  and  genius,  who  shed 
a  lustre  upon  its  name,  and,  doubtless,  exerted  a  favorable 
influence  upon  the  intellectual  character  of  its  population.  It , 
contained  the  only  university  in  Switzerland,  and  was  the 
residence  of  the  bishop  of  Basel,  whose  territory,  as  a  prince 
of  the  empire,  adjoined  to  this  canton.  Here  Erasmus  pub- 
lished his  editions  of  the  ecclesiastical  fathers  and  of  the 
Greek  New  Testament;  here  the  writings  of  Luther  were 
340 


GERMAN   REFORMED    CHURCH.  341 

reprinted  in  large  editions,  and  disseminated  with  amazing 
rapidity  over  the  neighboring  countries. 

As  early  as  1519,  says  Hottinger,  all  the  honorable  in- 
habitants of  Basel  were  friendly  to  Zwinglc.  Luther  was 
here  in  such  estimation,  that  Capito,  who  was  then  preacher  at 
the  cathedral,  wrote  to  him :  Inasmuch  as  it  seemed  that  he 
was  unsafe  in  Saxony,  and  would  be  obliged  to  go  into  exile, 
the  cardinal  of  Sion,  the  baron  von  Geroldseck,  a  very  reve- 
rend and  learned  bishop,  and  others  in  the  confederacy, 
would  both  aid  him  with  money  and  afford  him  an  asylum, 
where  he  might  either  be  concealed  or  continue  his  public  in- 
structions. He  adds,  that,  by  the  advice  of  Rhenanus,  his 
writings  were  published  by  J.  Frobenius,  a  printer  and  book- 
seller, and  had  been,  in  the  space  of  six  weeks,  dispersed  over 
France,  Italy,  Spain,  and  England,  where  they  were  bought 
with  great  avidity.  "  In  this,"  says  Capito,  "we  seek  nothing 
else  than  to  promote  the  common  cause.  It  will  certainly  be 
prospered,  if  the  truth  be  widely  disseminated,  seeing  that  it 
is  natural  to  man  to  assent  to  the  truth,  wherever  he  finds  it." 
Frobenius  himself  wrote  to  Luther,  that  the  cardinal  of  Sion, 
having  read  his  books,  exclaimed,  0  Luther  !  du  bist  tvahrJiaf- 
tig  Lauter ;  that  is,  "0  Luther  !  you  are  indeed  Pure;"  the 
adjective  lauter  being  a  play  upon  the  name  Luther,  which, 
in  its  original  German  form,  is  the  same,  and  signifies  pure. 
When  Erasmus  employed  the  press  of  Frobenius  with  his 
editions  of  the  fathers,  another  printer,  Adam  Petrie,  under- 
took the  printing  of  Luther's  publications,  and  realized  hand- 
some profits  from  the  sale  of  them,  which  continued  undi- 
minished.* 

These  writings  were  zealously  recommended  by  Zwingle 
and  Leo  Juda  at  Zurich;  and  such  was  their  correspondence 
with  the  doctrine  of  the  Swiss  reformer,  that,  when  the  expo- 
sition of  the  Lord's  prayer  appeared,  many  thought  that 
Zwingle  had  published  it  under  Luther's  name,  because  they 
had  before  heard  the  same  things,  in  his  exposition  of  th« 


*  Hottinger,  p.  48, 
2d2 


342  HISTORY    OF   THE 

sixth  chapter  of  Matthew.*  Wherever  these  writings  were 
read,  they  therefore  co-operated  with  great  power,  as  an  inde- 
pendent testimony,  with  the  preaching  of  the  reformer  of 
Switzerland :  and  it  was  for  this  reason  that  Zwingle  forbore 
to  read  them,  and  to  open  a  correspondence  with  Luther,  lest 
the  independence  of  their  testimony  might  be  obscured,  and 
the  effect  weakened.  How  lovely  was  then  the  harmony  of 
these  men  of  God,  and  how  truly  unfortunate  for  the  future 
success  of  the  common  cause  was  it,  that  this  harmony  was 
ever  disturbed  by  the  root  of  bitterness  that  so  soon  afterward 
grew  up  between  them  ! 

The  first  impressions  of  the  truth  were,  however,  not 
received  in  Basel  from  the  writings  of  Luther,  but  from  the 
ministrations  of  evangelical  pastors.  Wittenbach  had  im- 
parted some  seeds  of  gospel  truth  to  the  studious  youth,  while 
he  exercised  the  office  of  theological  professor  in  this  city,  and, 
as  Leo  Juda  somewhere  said,  communicated  many  things  in 
private  which  were  first  spoken  openly  by  others.  But  the 
first  preachers  who  taught  the  doctrine  of  salvation  in  public, 
were  Wolfgang  Fabricius  Capito,  and  Caspar  Hedio.  Capito, 
or  Kopflein,  became  the  pastor  of  the  cathedral  in  1512.  He 
was  born  at  Hagenau,  in  Alsace^  in  1478,  and  was,  conse- 
quently, older  than  Zwingle  by  six  years.  He  studied  at 
Basel,  and  addicted  himself  to  theology.  His  father,  a  coun- 
sellor, disgusted  with  the  lives  of  the  clergy,  persuaded  him 
to  relinquish  that  pursuit,  and  to  apply  himself  to  the  study 
of  medicine ;  but,  after  his  father's  death,  he  returned  again 
to  his  first  choice.  At  the  university  oiFreyhurg,  in  Brisgau, 
he  attended  the  lectures  on  jurisprudence  of  the  eminent 
jurist  Zasius,  and  took  the  degree  of  doctor  both  in  medicine 
and  theology.  The  degree  of  doctor  of  laws  was  conferred  on 
him  at  Ifentz,  in  1521.  His  first  pastoral  care  was  at  Bruch- 
sal,  in  the  bishopric  of  Spire  ;  from  which  place  he  was  called, 
in  1512,  to  the  situation  of  cathedral-preacher  in  Basel. 
Here  he  was  entrusted  also  with  a  professorship  in  the  uni- 

*  Hottinger,  p.  49. 


GERMAN   REFORMED   CHURCH.  343 

versity.  In  his  public  ministry,  he  pursued  a  course  similar 
to  that  which  Zwingle  afterward  adopted  in  Zurich,  of  ex- 
pounding an  entire  book  of  the  Holy  Scripture.  He  chose 
for  this  purpose  the  epistle  of  Paul  to  the  Romans,  without 
intending,  however,  by  this  method,  to  prejudice  the  faith  of 
Home;  but,  in  the  course  of  his  investigations,  his  eyes  were 
gradually  opened  upon  the  corruptions  of  the  church,  and,  at 
the  end  of  five  years,  about  the  close  of  the  year  1517,  he 
refused  any  longer  to  read  the  service  of  the  mass.  He  now 
formed  an  acquaintance  with  Zwingle,  who  was  laboring  at 
JEinsiedeln,  and  resolved  with  him  to  attack  the  dreaded 
papacy.  Pope  Leo,  probably  to  secure  the  influence  of  his 
talents  for  the  interests  of  the  holy  see,  appointed  him  to  a 
provostship,  which  Capito,  however,  declined.  In  1520,  he 
accepted  the  situation  of  court-preacher  to  the  young  elector 
and  archbishop  of  3Ientz,  whom  he  entertained  the  hope  of 
gaining  over  to  the  Reformation.  His  labors  in  Basel  were 
now  at  an  end ;  but  their  effects  did  not  terminate  here :  in 
the  judgment  of  Schroeck,  it  was  by  him  that  the  foundation 
was  laid  for  the  Reformation  in  this  city.* 

Capito  was  succeeded  in  the  same  office  by  Caspar  Hedio, 
a  native  of  Baden-Durlaclt,  who  rose  to  this  high  distinction 
from  a  very  humble  condition.  He  had  been  the  servant  of 
Erasmus  Fabricius,  when  the  latter  was  a  student  at  the  uni- 
versity of  Freyhurg.  Others  of  the  reformers  were,  in  like 
manner,  taken  from  the  lowest  ranks  in  life  :  Zwingle  rose 
from  the  condition  of  a  shepherd-boy ;  Luther's  father  was  a 
miner ;  and  the  great  reformer  of  Crermany,  when  a  student 
at  the  university,  obtained  his  living  by  singing  at  the  doors 
of  the  wealthy !  "  God  hath  chosen  the  weak  things  of  the 
world  to  confound  the  things  that  are  mighty ;  and  base  things 
of  the  w^orld,  and  things  which  are  despised,  hath  God  chosen, 
yea,  and  things  which  are  not,  to  bring  to  nought  the  things 
that  are:  that  no  flesh  should  glory  in  his  presence."t  Capito 
had  commenced  a  series  of  expository  sermons  on  the  gospel 

*  Hottinger,  p.  16,  55.     Schroeck,  vol.  ii.  p.  126.  f  1  Cor.  i.  27. 


344  HISTORY    OF    THK 

of  Matthew,  and  had  proceeded  as  far  as  the  sixth  chapter, 
when  he  closed  his  ministry  here.  Iledio  continued  the  same 
course,  commencing  at  the  place  where  his  predecessor  had 
ended.  Here,  unfortunately,  our  authorities  leave  us,  respect- 
ing the  life  and  ministry  of  this  man.* 

The  example  of  these  reformers  was  followed  by  John 
Luthard,  a  Franciscan  friar,  and  preacher  of  the  convent,  who 
expounded  the  gospel  of  Matthew.  He  finished  this  book  in 
the  space  of  eighteen  months,  to  the  great  edification  of  the 
pious,  says  Hettinger,  and  the  equally  great  mortification  of 
the  Papists,  t 

To  these  laborers  must  be  added  the  priest  of  St.  Albans, 
William  Roubli,  the  same  who  afterwards  acquired  distinction 
as  a  leader  of  the  Anabaptists.  He  declared  for  the  Reforma- 
tion in  1521 ;  but  his  zeal  outran  his  prudence :  instead  of 
laboring  first  to  change  the  hearts  of  his  hearers  by  enlight- 
ening their  understandings  and  pressing  upon  their  con- 
sciences the  saving  doctrines  of  the  gospel,  he  sought  to 
change  their  outward  practice  and  mode  of  worship  by  in- 
veighing against  the  sacrifice  of  the  mass,  purgatory,  private 
masses,  and  invocation  of  saints.  The  consequence  was  a 
violent  opposition,  which  eventuated  in  his  expulsion  from  the 
city.  The  impression  which  the  truth  had  already  made  may 
be  perceived  in  the  fact  that  many  of  the  citizens,  in  a  public 
meeting  held  for  the  purpose,  petitioned  the  government  in 
his  behalf,  and  fifty  ladies  of  his  parish  went  in  a  body  to  the 
council-house,  to  solicit  for  his  continuance  and  protection. J 
Capito  thought,  at  the  time  of  his  departure,  that  the  impres- 
sion which  the  truth  had  then  made  would  be  permanent.  To 
Hedio,  the  prospect  appeared  less  encouraging :  "  Christian 
knowledge,"  he  thought,  "might  be  said  to  lie  between  the 
anvil  and  the  hammer,  and  if  danger  was  ever  imminent,  it 
was  now  imminent. "§ 


*  We  find  Hedio,  in  1529,  with  Bucer  at  Strasburg,  -where  he  joined  Zwin- 
gle  and  Oecohxmpadius,  on  their  way  to  the  colloquy  at  Mai-burg.  In  1522, 
he  was  preacher  with  Capito  at  Mentz. 

t  Hottiiiger,  p.  55.  %  Ibid.  p.  68.  §  Ibid.  p.  5G. 


GERMAN  REFORMED  CHURCH.  345 

But,  useful  as  the  labors  of  these  eminent  men  undoubtedly 
were,  it  is  to  a  greater  man  that  the  honor  of  being  the  chief 
instrument  of  the  reformation  of  this  city  and  canton  is  justly 
due.  That  man  was  John  Oecolampadius,  or  Ilausschein,  the 
Melancthon  of  Switzerland,  a  man  of  great  talents  and  pro- 
found learning,  and  of  a  singularly  calm,  meek,  and  pacific 
temper. 

Oecolampadius  vras  descended  from  Swiss  ancestors,  his 
grandfather  being  a  citizen  of  Basel,  but  was  himself  a  native 
of  Weinsherg,  in  Franconia,  where  he  was  born  in  1482.  His 
father  had  designed  him  for  mercantile  business,  but  his  mother 
desiring  that  he  should  enter  one  of  the  learned  professions, 
he  was,  in  compliance  with  her  wishes,  placed  at  school  in 
Seilhron,  subsequently  in  Heidelberg,  and  later  at  Bologna, 
in  Italy,  where  he  studied  law.  Jurisprudence,  however, 
afforded  him  so  little  pleasure,  that  he  returned  to  Reidel- 
herg,  and  made  theology  his  principal  study.  Here  Philip, 
elector  of  the  Palatinate,  confided  to  him  the  education  of 
his  sons.  His  parents,  who  were  in  good  circumstances, 
founded  a  pastorship  in  his  native  place,  and  he  was  appointed 
to  the  living;  but,  conscious  of  his  deficiencies,  and  desirous 
of  acquiring  more  knowledge,  he  soon  relinquished  this  situ- 
ation, and  repaired  to  Stuttgard,  where  he  devoted  himself 
to  the  Greek  and  Hebrew  languages,  under  the  tuition  of  the 
great  Reuchlin,  and,  in  the  latter,  also,  of  a  Spanish  phy- 
sician, Matthaeus  Adrianus.  After  completing  his  studies, 
he  resumed  his  ministry  in  Weinsherg,  in  1514,  and  made 
himself  highly  acceptable  by  his  seriousness,  meekness,  and 
modesty  in  the  pulpit,  that  contrasted  so  advantageously  with 
the  pompous  frivolity  of  the  preachers  of  those  times.  Capito 
became  acquainted  with  him  at  Heidelberg,  and,  after  his  own 
settlement  in  Basel,  prevailed  on  the  bishop  to  give  him  the 
appointment  of  preacher  at  one  of  the  churches  in  that  city. 
He  came  to  Basel  in  1515.  Erasmus,  who  was  at  this  time 
engaged  in  preparing  his  edition  of  the  Greek  New  Testament 
from  manuscripts,  employed  him  as  an  assistant  in  that 
arduous  work.     Capito  conferred  on  him  the  degree  of  doctor 

44 


346  HISTORY   OF   THE 

of  divinity  in  the  following  year ;  anrl,  in  the  same  year, 
according  to  Ilottinger,  but  in  1518  according  to  Schroeck, 
he  accepted  a  call  to  the  pastorship  of  the  cathedral  in 
Augsburg,  and,  leaving  Basel,  repaired  to  that  city.  But  in 
Augsburg,  also,  his  stay  was  very  short.  A  constitutional 
diffidence,  and  the  Aveakness  of  his  voice,  disqualified  him,  as 
he  thought,  for  that  situation ;  and  dissatisfied,  moreover, 
with  the  bustle  and  tumult  of  the  city,  he  sought  relief,  and 
determined  to  retire  from  the  world  for  a  season,  that  he 
might  indulge  his  quiet,  meditative  disposition,  and  improve 
his  mind  by  study  and  works  of  piety.  For  this  purpose,  he 
entered  the  Brigittine  convent  of  Alten-Miinster,  in  the 
vicinity,  hoping  to  find  it  a  nursery  of  Christian  knowledge 
and  piety,  and  a  retreat  suited  to  his  present  feelings ;  but  he 
pi'udently  reserved  the  liberty  to  return  again  to  the  world,  as 
it  was  termed,  if  he  felt  it  at  any  time  his  duty  to  do  so.  This 
unexpected  step  was  extremely  disagreeable  to  his  friends, 
particularly  to  Erasmus,  Capito,  and  Pirkheimer ;  and  he 
himself  soon  discovered  that  he  had  made  a  very  imj^roper 
choice  in  selecting  a  convent  for  his  purpose. 

In  the  mean  time,  he  became  acquainted  with  the  waitings 
of  Luther,  and  was  so  captivated  with  the  doctrine  of  the  great 
reformer,  that,  as  he  wrote  to  a  friend,  "  he  prized  them  so 
highly,  that,  though  an  angel  from  heaven  should  contradict, 
he  could  not  refuse  them  his  assent."  But  this  attachment 
to  the  newly-discovered  truth,  and  the  courage  which  it  gave 
him  to  speak  openly  and  freely  what  he  knew,  exposed  him  to 
dangers  from  which  nothing  but  a  precipitate  flight  could 
save  him.  At  the  solicitation  of  certain  friends,  he  communi- 
cated his  opinions  on  the  religious  questions  which  were  then 
agitated,  and  expressed  them  also  in  writings  that  were  pub- 
lished. Among  these  publications  was  a  treatise  against 
auricular  confession,  which  gave  the  greatest  offence,  and 
brought  upon  him  the  hatred  of  the  monks  and  the  charge  of 
heresy.  Glapio,  the  emperor's  confessor,  denounced  him  as 
a  heretic  to  the  diet  of  Worms;  the  conventuals  uttered 
threats,  which  came  to  the  knowledge  of  his  friends,  and  the 


GERMAN   REFORMED    CHURCn.  347 

danger  becoming  imminent,  they  furnished  him  with  a  horse, 
upon  which  he  made  his  escape.*  He  now  fled  to  Francis 
von  Sickingen,  a  German  knight,  whose  castle,  Ebernburg^  was 
an  asylum  for  all  men  of  genius  and  piety  who  sought  a  refuge 
from  ecclesiastical  tyranny  and  persecution.  Here  he  met 
with  Bucer,  Schwebel,  Agricola  oi  Augsburg,  and  Ulrich  von 
Hutten,  all  of  whom  had  found  a  resting-place  before  him  in 
this  abode  of  hospitality  and  freedom.  He  was  appointed 
chaplain  of  the  castle,  and  in  this  office  read,  instead  of  the 
daily  mass,  a  portion  of  the  New  Testament  in  German.  The 
mass  was  restricted  to  Sundays  and  holidays,  and  divine  wor- 
ship was  performed  in  the  vernacular  tongue.  But  the  critical 
situation  of  Sickingen,  in  his  war  with  the  elector  of  Treves, 
which  eventuated  in  his  ruin  and  death,  obliged  him  to  dismiss 
the  guests  whom  he  could  no  longer  protect.  They  dispersed 
and  sought  refuge  wherever  the  providence  of  God  might  lead 
the  way.  Oecolampadius  came,  in  company  with  Hutten,  to 
Basel,  in  November,  1522,  in  a  state  of  destitution,  and 
obtained  employment  and  support  from  the  printer  and  book- 
seller, Andrew  Cratander,  until  he  was,  not  long  afterward, 
appointed  third  professor  of  theology  in  the  university,  and, 
somewhat  later,  vicar  to  the  superannuated  preacher  of  the 
church  of  St.  Martins.  Luther  wrote  to  him,  in  June,  1524, 
to  congratulate  him  on  his  escape  from  the  convent,  and 
exhorted  him  to  continue  in  the  faith  to  which,  by  divine  grace, 
he  had  attained.  In  the  mean  time,  he  opened  a  correspond- 
ence with  Zwingle,  and  formed  that  acquaintance  which  soon 
ripened  into  a  cordial  and  enduring  friendship,  and  united 
them  both  as  one  heart  in  the  prosecution  of  the  great  cause 
to  which  they  were  devoted. f 

Oecolampadius  began  his  labors  in  the  professorship  by 
lecturing  on  the  prophet  Isaiah  to  crowded  audiences.  The 
clergy  endeavored  to  prevent  this  attendance,  but  failed  in 


■*  Hottinger,  p.  95. 

f  Reformations-Almanach  fiir  1819.     Hottinger,    p.  16,  94.     Schroeck, 
vol.  ii.   p.  126. 


848  HISTORY   OF   THE 

the  attempt.  The  council  and  the  citizens,  says  Hettinger, 
were  so  well  inclined  to  the  gospel,  that  it  seemed  as  though 
they  "would  immediately  embrace  it.*  That  triumph  was, 
however,  not  yet  so  near  at  hand. 

The  reformer  of  Basel  was  assisted  in  his  arduous  work  by 
the  guardian  of  the  Franciscans,  Conrad  Pellicanus,  who  came 
to  this  city  from  Ruffach,  in  Alsace,  in  1519.  The  freedom 
of  the  guardian's  sentiments,  and  the  countenance  and  aid  he 
gave  to  the  publication  of  Luther's  writings,  especially  his 
translation  of  the  New  Testament,  in  the  latter  part  of  the 
year  1523,  gave  great  offence  to  the  votaries  of  Rome,  parti- 
cularly to  the  canons  and  the  professors  of  the  university. 
When  the  provincial  of  the  order  came  to  Basel,  complaints 
were  preferred  against  Pellicanus  and  two  others,  John  Kreiss 
and  John  LUthard,  the  former  an  organist,  and  the  latter 
convent  preacher.  Shatzger,  such  was  the  provincial's  name, 
determined  to  transfer  Pellicanus  to  Kaisersherg,  in  Alsace, 
and  to  replace  him  by  the  guardian  of  that  convent.  Pelli- 
canus refused  to  submit,  and  appealed  to  the  council.  The 
council  demanded  that  the  charges  against  him  should  be  laid 
before  them.  This  demand  the  provincial  refused  to  obey,  in 
consequence  of  which  the  council  ordered  him  to  quit  the  city 
within  three  days.  With  Shatzger,  the  principal  conspirators 
against  Pellicanus  were  sent  away,  and  among  these  were  the 
two  theological  professors,  Mauritius  and  Gebweiler.  Pelli- 
canus was  appointed  to  one  of  the  vacant  professorships,  and 
from  this  time  he  co-operated  more  fully  with  Oecolampadius. 
He  was  now  superseded  in  the  convent  by  the  guardian  of 
Kaisersherg,  P.  Roman,  an  ignorant  friar  of  loose  morals,  who 
was  sometime  afterward  detected  in  a  disgraceful  affair,  and, 
in  consequence  of  it,  sent  away  in  dishonor. f 

In  his  vicariate,  Oecolampadius  lectured  on  the  first  epistle 
of  John,  and  his  exposition  of  this  epistle  was  published  in  the 
following  year,  with  a  dedication  to  the  bishop,  Christopher 
von  Uttenheim,  who  seems,  at  first,  to  have  regarded  him,  as 

*  Hottinger,  p,  96,  f  Ibid.  p.  119, 


GERMAN   REFORMED   CHURCH.  849 

he  did  his  predecessors  in  the  same  cause,  with  favor  and  kind- 
ness. In  the  warmth  of  his  zeal,  the  reformer  wrought  so 
assiduously  for  the  furtherance  of  the  gospel,  that  even  Zwingle 
admonished  him  to  moderate  his  labors.  His  success  was 
equal  to  his  diligence.  Even  the  bishop's  suffragan,  says 
Hottinger,  went  over  to  his  party ;  so  that  Erasmus  wrote  to 
Zwingle,  Oecolampadlus  apud  nos  triumphat ;  "  Oecolampadius 
triumphs  with  us."*  His  co-workers  in  the  ministry  also  grew 
in  number.  Beside  those  already  noticed,  he  was  aided  by 
Wolfgang  Weissenburg,  preacher  at  the  hospital  and  professor 
of  theology  ;  Marcus  Bersi,  pastor  of  St.  Leonards  ;  Thomas 
Geierfalk,  preacher  of  the  Augustinians ;  and  to  these  were 
soon  added  the  deacon  of  St.  Martin's,  Bonifticius  AVolfhard, 
Jacob  Immerlin,  pastor  of  St.  Ulric,  and  Peter  Froberger, 
pastor  of  St.  Albans.  Supported  by  these  pious  co-laborers, 
and  sustained  by  the  citizens,  the  reformer's  heart  was  en- 
couraged, and  his  hands  were  strengthened  for  his  work.  He 
exposed  the  Papist  errors,  and  exhibited  the  completeness  of 
the  atonement,  the  doctrine  of  saving  faith,  and  the  nature 
and  duty  of  the  works  of  love,  with  such  effect,  that  popery 
sank  visibly  in  the  esteem  of  the  people  who  crowded  to  his 
ministry. 

An  effort  was  demanded  to  save  the  sinking  interests  of  the 
hierarchy  and  the  departing  glory  of  the  church ;  but  to 
attempt  to  impose  silence  upon  the  preachers,  or  to  punish 
them  for  heresy,  while  the  council  and  the  citizens  sustained 
them,  Avould  have  been  worse  than  idle.  Only  one  measure 
seemed  practicable :  it  was  to  buy  over  the  master-spirit  to 
the  side  of  the  papacy ;  and  that  measure  it  was  resolved  to 
try.  John  Dobneck,  a  native  of  Wendelstein,  a  village  in  the 
precincts  of  Nuremberg,  a  Papist  writer,  better  known  as 
Cochlaeus,  wrote  to  Oecolampadius  from  Stuttgard,  expressing 
his  regret  that  so  learned  a  man  should  become  a  leader  of 
the  Lutheran  sect,  and  engaged,  if  he  were  desirous  of  a  papal 
dispensation,  to  procure  for  him  a  pastorship  or  a  canonicate. 


*  Hottinger,  p.  122 
2E 


S50  HISTORY   OP   THE 

Oecolampaclius  was  still  only  vicar  of  St.  Martins,  and  without 
a  fixed  compensation.  The  bait  was,  therefore,  alluring 
enough,  in  the  judgment  of  such  men  as  Cochlaeus,  but  it 
had  no  attraction  for  the  reformer,  who,  dependent  as  he  now 
was,  turned  from  it  with  silent  disdain.  A  man  like  him 
would  have  turned  away,  with  the  same  contempt,  from  a 
cardinalship,  or  the  papal  throne.* 

The  Papist  clergy  and  their  party  were  not  passive  specta- 
tors of  this  success,  which  was  shrouding  their  prospect  in 
darkness  ;  neither  was  the  supreme  pontiff  inattentive  to  it. 
A  papal  brief  stirred  up  the  indignation  of  the  votaries  of 
Rome  to  what  they  esteemed,  or  what,  at  least,  they  would 
represent,  as  a  holy  zeal  for  the  church,  for  the  mother  of 
God,  for  the  blessed  saints,  and  for  all  the  host  of  heaven, 
who  were  dishonored  and  grieved  by  these  successes,  that 
deprived  them  of  the  adorations  and  the  worship  of  a  devout 
people.  Had  but  the  council  and  the  citizens  possessed  the 
mind  of  the  holy  father,  and  cherished  the  tender  mercies  of 
holy  mother  church  for  her  children,  all  this  disturbance  might 
have  been  easily  quelled.  Dungeons  and  racks  would  have 
been  called  into  requisition,  the  sword  would  have  been  un- 
sheathed, fires  would  have  been  kindled,  the  streets  and  the 
environs  of  Basel  would  have  been  graced  with  many  an  auto 
da  fe  ;  and  while  the  wretched  sufferers  writhed  and  groaned 
in  their  agonies,  Rome  might  have  sung  Te  Dewjis,  and 
chaunted  her  joy  for  the  destruction  of  heretics  and  the  tri- 
umph and  glory  of  the  holy  church,  instead  of  sitting  in  afflic- 
tion and  mourning  over  her  disasters.  But  the  council  and 
ihe  citizens  were  indifferent  to  her  interests  and  callous  to  her 
appeals,  and  nothing  remained  but  to  struggle  unaided,  and 
to  vent  her  wounded  feelings  in  floods  of  angry  invective. 
The  Papist  clergy  fulminated  loud  denunciations  in  their 
pulpits,  and  sought  to  arouse  the  passions  of  the  faithful,  as 
Avell  as  to  convince  their  judgments,  and  to  pour  an  over- 
whelming flood  of  indignation  upon  the  men  who  thus  assailed 

*  Hottinger,  p.  160. 


GERMAN   REFORMED   CHURCH.  351 

the  honor  and  disturbed  the  peace  of  the  holy  church.  Dis- 
cussion grew  warmer,  and  Basel  became  an  arena  of  religious 
strife,  in  which  the  passions  on  both  sides  were  likely  to  tri- 
umph over  reason  and  the  fear  of  God.  The  council,  justly 
esteeming  it  their  duty  to  preserve  the  public  peace,  and  to 
maintain  order  and  decorum  in  the  discussion  of  religious  doc- 
trines, interposed  their  authority  as  moderators  between  the 
parties.  They  would  not  forbid  free  discussion,  but  they  were 
desirous  of  preventing  disorderly  excesses.  For  this  purpose, 
they  published  a  mandate,  by  which  they  ordained  that  all 
the  preachers  should  declare  the  gospel  and  the  doctrine  of 
God  freely,  and  that,  if  any  one  stigmatized  another  as  a 
heretic,  without  being  able  to  prove  him  such  by  the  testimony 
of  the  Holy  Scripture  ;  or  if  any  one  propounded  as  the  teach- 
ing of  the  Scripture  what  he  could  not  sustain  by  its  authority, 
he  should  be  silenced  in  the  ministry,  and  punished  otherwise, 
also,  as  the  case  might  demand.* 

This  mandate,  which  was  published  in  the  early  part  of  the 
year  1524,  was  a  public  and  formal  recognition  of  the  supreme 
authority  of  the  Bible  as  a  rule  of  faith  and  practice  ;  and,  as 
such,  it  was  a  decisive  step,  though,  probably,  not  so  intended, 
in  the  establishment  of  the  reformation  in  Basel ;  for,  if  the 
Bible  alone  is  to  be  appealed  to,  nothing  is  more  certain  than 
that  the  entire  fabric  of  Romish  superstition  must  fall  into 
ruins.  This  danger  the  Papist  clergy  were  not  slow  to  per- 
ceive ;  and  hence  they  early  betook  themselves  to  the  traditions 
of  the  church,  the  fathers,  the  councils,  and  the  popish  decre- 
tals, which  they  made  of  equal  authority  with  the  written 
word  of  God,  if  not  superior  to  it. 

*  Hottinger,  p.  161. 


352  HISTORY   OP   THE 


CHAPTER    11. 

THE   CITY  AND  TERRITORY  OF  CONSTANCE. 

Another  radiating  point,  from  -which  the  light  of  the  gospel 
was  reflected  upon  neighboring  phices,  was  the  imperial  city 
of  Constance^  the  bishop's  residence,  and  the  capital  of  the 
diocese  in  which  the  Zwinglian  reformation  began.  Thouo-h- 
belonging  to  Austria,'^  it  is  situated  on  the  southern  side  of  the 
Rhine,  between  the  upper  and  the  lower  lakes  of  Constance, 
which  here  form  the  boundary  of  Sivitzei'land.  It  is  iBcmo- 
rable  as  the  place  of  meeting  of  the  celebrated  council  of  Con- 
stance, in  1414  to  1418,  by  whose  order  John  Huss  and  Jerome 
of  Prague  were  burnt  alive  for  alleged  heresy.  After  it  fell 
into  the  hands  of  the  Austrians,  and  lost  its  liberty,  together 
with  its  independence,  in  1548,  its  trade  and  population  de- 
clined. Its  population  now  is  about  four  thousand,  and  its 
trade  insignificant. 

Constance,  like  Basel,  received  its  light  both  from  Witten- 
berg and  from  Zurich. 

Luther's  doctrine  was  brought  to  this  city  in  1519,  when, 
amid  the  desolating  ravages  of  the  plague,  many  were  disposed 
to  amend  their  lives,  and  to  seek  the  means  of  so  doing  in  his 
writings.  Among  these  were  Jacob  Windner,  a  native  of 
Reutlingen,  assistant  preacher  or  deacon  at  the  church  of  St. 
Stephen,  who  was  soon  after  promoted  to  the  pastorship  of 
St.  John's ;  and  Bartholomew  Metzler,  his  successor  in  the 
deaconship.  Both  of  'these  were  learned  men.  They  were 
induced,  by  the  writings  of  Luther,  to  examine  the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures ;  and  the  truth  Avhich  they  learned  they  were  faithful  to 
hold  forth  in  their  official  ministrations  to  the  people.  Their 
commencement  was  well  received ;   the  citizens,  many  of  the 


*  Now  to  the  grand-dutchy  of  Baden. 


GERMAN   REFORMED   CnURCH.  353 

clergy,  and  the  bishop  Hugo  himself,  were  pleasea  ^-ith  their 
doctrine.  Other  clerics  were  much  dissatisfied  Avith  it,  and 
inveighed  against  it  in  their  pulpits  and  elseA\hcre  as  a  damn- 
able heresy.  At  the  head  of  these  was  Antonius  Pirata, 
preacher  of  the  Dominican  convent.  The  pope  also  interfered, 
by  giving  the  pastorate  of  St.  John's  to  a  certain  Guldin  of 
Zurich^  and  authorizing  him  to  thrust  out  AVindner.  But  the 
council  having  declared  for  Windner,  and  informed  Giildin 
that  they  would  not  pay  to  him  the  income  of  the  living,  the 
latter  withdrew,  and  relinquished  the  pastorship  to  his  com- 
petitor. In  1521,  the  situation  of  pastor  in  the  cathedral 
became  vacant,  by  the  death  of  Macarius,  the  late  incumbent. 
This  office  was  at  the  disposal  of  the  cathedral  chapter,  who 
elected  John  Wanner  of  Kaufbiiren.  Some  of  the  capitulars, 
who  accused  him  of  Lutheranism,  were  w^armly  opposed  to  his 
election,  but,  by  the  influence  of  friends,  particularly  of  the 
count  of  Lupfen,  he  was,  nevertheless,  sustained.  After  his 
induction  into  his  new  office,  he  took  part  with  Windner  and 
Metzler,  and  preached  the  gospel  in  its  purity. 

About  this  time,  Ambrose  Blarer  came  to  Constance,  from 
the  Benedictine  convent  of  AlbersbacJi,  in  the  dutchy  of  Wir- 
temhcrgy  which  was  then  subject  to  Ferdinand,  archduke  of 
Austria,  its  sovereign,  duke  Ulric  having  been  expelled  and 
driven  into  exile.  Ambrose  was  a  son  of  Augustine  Blarer, 
member  of  the  council  of  Constance.  In  his  youth,  he  gave 
such  indications  of  talent,  that  the  council  took  notice  of  him, 
and,  learning  that  he  designed  to  enter  the  convent  of  Albers- 
bacJi,  sent  one  of  their  body  to  his  mother,  to  request  her  to 
dissuade  him  from  his  purpose,  that  he  might  be  preserved  to 
the  state  for  the  future  service  of  the  commonwealth.  Such, 
however,  was  his  inclination  to  the  monastic  life,  that  he  per- 
sisted in  his  original  pui-pose,  even  contrary  to  the  wishes  of 
his  parents.  In  the  convent,  he  enjoyed  a  high  reputation 
until,  by  the  reading  of  Luther's  writings,  which,  before  their 
condemnation  by  the  pope,  might  be  freely  read  in  the  con- 
vents as  well  as  elsewhere,  and  by  his  own  reflections,  he 
obtained  better  ideas  of  Christian  doctrine,  and  both  avowed 
2  e2  45 


354  HISTORY   OF   THE 

and  defended  them  openly.     He  was,  at  the  time,  preacher 
of  the  convent,  and  officiated,  also,  as  vicai'  of  the  parish  ;  and 
the  truth  which  he  had  learned  he  taught  in  his  stated  preach- 
ing, both  to  the  conventuals  and  the  parishioners.     Hence 
arose  an  enmity  and  a  persecution  that  eventuated  in  his 
separation  from  the  convent.     He  left  it  in  July,  1522.     On 
his  arrival  in  Constance,  he  neither  laid  aside  his  habit  nor 
taught  in  public,  but  he  aided  the  three  evangelical  preachers 
in  private,  and  thus  became  an  unobtrusive  and  silent  leader 
in  the  reformation  of  his  native  city.     The  course  he  was 
pursuing  was,  however,  not  unknown  to  the  zealous  defenders 
of  the  papacy.     They  foresaw  that  he  would  become  a  formi- 
dable antagonist,  and  were,  therefore,  anxious  to  rid  them- 
selves of  his   presence.     They  applied   to   the  regency  of 
Wirtemberg  to  have  him  called  back  into  his  convent,  urging 
the   obligation   of  his   plighted   faith.     The  regency  sent   a 
special  messenger  to   the  council,  with  a  request  that   they 
would  interpose  their  authority  and  direct  Blarer  to  return. 
The  negotiation  failed,  as  did,  also,  subsequent  exertions  on 
the  part  of  the  abbot,  in  the  following  year.     The  council 
promised  to  make   proper  representations  to  Blarer,  and  to 
communicate  the  result  in  writing.     This  they  did,  but  they 
would  do  nothing  more.     Blarer  vindicated   his    exit   in   a 
written  apology,  a  copy  of  which  the  council  transmitted  to 
the  regency.     It  was  afterwards  printed,  and  could  not  fail 
to  aggravate  the  wound  which  the  prelates  wished  to  heal.    It 
is  written  with  much  ability,  in  a  truly  Christian  spirit.     In 
the  conclusion,  the  writer  says :   "  Nevertheless,  I  shall  serve 
the  convent  Albersbach,  and  its  members,  wherever  I  can  and 
have  opportunity,  and  shall  demean  myself  piously,  where- 
ever  I  may  be ;  inasmuch  as  the  divine  word  has  everywhere 
given  me  rest  and  quietness,  and  has  enclosed  me  within  the 
true  convent  walls.     The  most  pious  monk,  surely,  cannot  be 
more  than  a  good  Christian,  which  I  desire  always  to  be,  both 
in  life  and  death.     In  Deo  meo  transgrediar  murum."* 

*  Q.  Voegelin's  Ref.  Histor.  der  Stadt  Constance.     In  Fueslin's  Beitrage, 
vol.  iv.  p.  213. 


GERMAN   REFORMED   CHURCH.  355 

Before  the  arrival  of  Blarer,  or  the  election  of  Wanner,  as 
early  as  1520,  the  Franciscan  friar,  Sebastian  Hoffmeister,  a 
native  of  Sehaffhausen,  afterwards  distinguished  as  one  of  the 
reformers  of  his  own  country,  dwelt  in  Constance.  He  had 
previously  resided  in  Zurich,  where  he  had  been  convent- 
reader,  or  preacher  to  his  order.  There  he  formed  an  ac- 
quaintance with  Zwingle,  whom  he  highly  esteemed  and  com- 
mended, as  a  man  who  was  above  the  corrupting  influence  of 
bribes.  "  If  Zurich,  the  head  of  the  fatherland,  were  healed," 
he  thought,  "there  was  hope  that  the  whole  body  would  recover 
from  its  malady."  In  Constance,  he  gained  over  many  friends 
to  Zwingle,  who  addressed  the  reformer  by  letters,  and  en- 
couraged him  to  persevere  in  his  great  undertaking.*  His 
continuance  here  seems  to  have  been  limited  to  a  short  period, 
and  he  does  Hot  appear  to  have  taken  any  part  publicly  in  the 
reformation  of  this  city,  nor  to  have  been  himself  yet  very  far 
advanced  in  Christian  knowledge. 

In  the  spring  of  1521  appeared  the  pope's  bull  of  excom- 
munication against  Luther  and  his  adherents,  which  was  dated 
on  the  28tli  of  March.  It  was  followed  by  the  emperor's  de- 
cree of  outlawry,  dated  May  8th,  but  not  published  until  the 
26th  of  the  same  month.  By  this  decree,  Luther  was  declared 
an  obstinate  heretic ;  all  men  were  forbidden  to  harbor  or 
protect  him ;  every  one  was  commanded  to  apprehend  him, 
wherever  found,  and  to  deliver  him  over  to  the  imperial 
authorities ;  his  books  were  prohibited,  and  such  as  possessed 
them  were  ordered  to  deliver  them  to  the  magistrates.  In  the 
mean  time,  Luther  disappeared.  He  had  been  seized,  on  his 
retui-n  from  the  diet  of  Worms,  by  the  elector's  order,  and 
placed  for  concealment  in  the  castle  of  Wartburg.  Strange 
stories  went  abroad  concerning  him.  According  to  some 
devout  Papists,  the  devil  had  carried  him  off,  bodily,  to  hell, 
and  unearthly  noises  were  made  by  his  ghost  in  certain  places. 
But  his  doctrine  remained  in  the  minds  of  the  people,- and 
was  unhurt  by  these  events.     The  Papist  leaders  were  zealoua 

*  Hottinger,  p.  56. 


S56  HISTORY   OF  THE 

in  publishing  the  imperial  decree,  wherever  they  Trere  per- 
mitted to  do  so.  It  was  brought  to  Constance  by  the  provost 
of  the  cathedral ;  he  presented  it  to  the  bishop,  but  was  pre- 
vented, by  the  dread  of  popular  indignation,  from  communica- 
ting it  to  the  city  council.  Faber,  the  bishop's  vicar,  "  made 
fists,"  says  Hettinger,  "but  secretly."  Angry  as  these  fathers 
were  at  the  multitude,  they  dared  not  openly  provoke  them,* 
In  the  mean  time,  Wanner  preached  with  great  zeal  and 
ability  in  the  cathedral,  and  attracted  large  auditories,  the 
people  taking  pleasure  in  the  doctrines  of  the  gospel,  and 
having  an  aversion  to  those  of  the  Papist  preachers.  Though 
some  of  the  capitulars  and  others  of  the  clergy  were  dissatisfied 
with  this  kind  of  preaching,  yet,  as  long  as  the  external  forms 
of  religion  were  unafiected,  and  the  perquisites  and  revenues 
of  the  clergy  continued  as  before,  no  serious  opposition  was 
made  to  the  reformers  ;  but,  so  soon  as  the  people  understood 
the  doctrine  of  the  gospel,  and  began  to  see  the  worthlessness 
of  the  popish  ceremonies,  they  withheld  the  money  they  had 
been  accustomed  to  pay  for  them ;  and  now,  when  they  felt 
the  effect,  not  only  in  the  deficiency  of  their  resources,  but  in 
the  diminution  also  of  their  credit  and  influence,  the  bishop 
and  his  party  began  to  resist  them.  It  was  the  more  neces- 
sary to  put  an  end  to  the  new  preaching  in  Constance,  because 
other  cities  would  be  influenced  by  the  example  of  the  episco- 
pal residence ;  and  if  the  bishop  complained,  they  might  reply 
that  the  same  things  were  done  in  his  capital.  His  grace  was 
still  more  alarmed  by  recent  occurrences  in  Zurich,  where,  as 
a  fruit  of  the  same  kind  of  preaching,  the  laws  of  the  church 
were  openly  infringed,  and  even  his  spiritual  jurisdiction  was 
tottering  to  its  fall.  Zurich,  he  feared,  might  infect  the 
whole  confederacy,  and  must,  if  possible,  be  brought  back  to 
.  its  former  position ;  and,  for  this  purpose,  he  left  nothing  un- 
tried, by  letters,  messages,  and  deputations.  Hugo  himself 
would,  perhaps,  have  pursued  a  different  course ;  but  he  was 
wholly  governed  by  his  vicar,  John  Faber  ;  and  the  vicar  had 

*  Hottinger,  p.  60.  , 


GERMAN  REFORMED  CHURCH.  357 

recently  returned  from  Rome,  where  papal  favor  had  smiled 
upon  him,  and  had  filled  him  ^vith  a  burning  zeal  for  the  in- 
terests and  the  glory  of  the  holy  see.  Faber  was  now  sent  to 
Zurich,  at  the  head  of  a  deputation,  to  remonstrate  with  its 
government  against  the  violations  of  the  church-laws,  but  was 
so  met  by  Zwingle,  that  his  mission  was  fruitless.*  He  was 
despatched  again,  with  another  deputation,  in  the  succeeding 
year,  to  watch  over  the  interests  of  the  church  at  the  public 
disputation  in  that  city,  in  January,  1523,  but  returned  with 
dishonor ;  and  his  mission  became  a  reproach  and  a  by-word 
with  the  disaffected  wits  of  Zurich  and  Constance.'f 

Martin  Blantsch,  one  of  the  episcopal  deputation,  attempted 
to  effect  in  Constance  what  he  could  not  accomplish  in  Zurich, 
where  he  did  not  choose  to  encounter  Zwingle  and  his  asso- 
ciates. At  the  bishop's  command,  he  undertook  to  defend  the 
faith  and  worship  of  Jlome  in  the  cathedral.  The  plan  was 
concocted  in  the  absence  of  Wanner ;  but  the  latter,  having 
returned,  and  Blantsch  making  some  delay,  he  ascended  the 
pulpit  and  anticipated  him,  in  a  discourse  that  utterly  frus- 
trated the  Papist's  design. |  This  new  defeat,  in  a  place 
where  it  was  not  expected,  exasperated  the  bishop's  party 
against  the  preacher.  As  the  people  sustained  him,  he  could 
not  be  reached  by  the  spiritual  court ;  a  report  Avent  abroad 
of  a  design  to  carry  him  off  secretly  at  night ;  Wanner,  ap- 
prehending danger,  sought  the  protection  of  the  council ;  they 
resolved  to  protect  him,  and  communicated  their  determination 
to  the  bishop  and  his  chapter.     The  attempt  was  never  made. 

Hugo  now  appeared  before  the  council  in  person,  attended 
by  a  large  retinue  of  canons  and  courtiers,  on  the  11th  of 
February,  1523.  "It  is  known  to  you,"  said  he,  "that, 
during  some  years,  Martin  Luther  has  caused  many  errors, 
insurrections,  and  disturbances  by  his  doctrine ;  for  which 
reason,  his  doctrine  has  been  condemned  by  his  holiness,  the 


*  ITottingcr,  p.  77,  &c. 

•}•  Ibid.  p.  108,  &c.     Voegelin,  in  Fueslin's  Beit.,  vol.  iv.  p.  215. 

J  Hottinger,  p.  140.     Vaegelin's  Hist,  ia  Fueslin,  vol.  iv.  p.  215. 


S58  HISTORY   OF  THE 

pope,  and  by  his  imperial  majesty,  our  most  gracious  lord. 
Nevertheless,  as  his  poison  is  already  spued  out  into  the 
world,  some  preachers  here  dare  advocate  it ;  from  which 
great  evils  will  arise ;  discord  among  the  common  people  and 
disobedience  toward  superiors  are  generated ;  and  it  will  come 
to  such  a  pass  that  every  thing  will  be  overturned,  seeing  that 
many  of  these  preachers  speak  against  the  most  holy  councils 
that  have  been  held  in  Christ,  by  his  own  authority,  and  that 
of  their  papal  holinesses,  the  successors  of  St.  Peter,  in  many 
years  past,  and  by  which  most  of  Luther's  errors  have  been 
judged  and  condemned ;  and  thus  they  detract  seriously  from 
the  Christian  faith,  which  the  holy  fathers  and  the  councils 
have  so  well  explained,  confirmed,  and  defined.  It  is,  further, 
a  grievous  thing,  contrary  to  Christianity,  and  a  real  abomi- 
nation, to  say,  before  believing  ears,  that  the  elect  in  heaven, 
who,  in  part  by  the  tortures  they  endured,  and  partly  by  their 
diligent  exploration  of  the  Holy  Scripture  and  the  will  of  God, 
have  merited  and  obtained  this  everlasting  honor,  especially 
the  immaculate  mother  of  God,  the  virgin  Mary,  should  not 
be  invoked  for  their  intercession  with  God,  agreeably  to  the 
custom  derived  from  our  forefathers.  If  this  be  pei^mitted,  it 
will  soon  come  to  pass  that  the  mass,  which  has  now  been  used 
many  hundred  years,  and  is  an  acceptable  offering  to  the  Most 
High  for  the  living  and  the  dead,  will  be  impugned,  and  they 
will  preach  that  it  is  no  sacrifice :  which  is  not  at  all  to  be 
endured.  Noav,  as  it  especially  pertains  to  us  as  a  pastor,  or 
as  a  kind  father,  to  preserve  the  sheep  entrusted  to  us  from 
the  inroads  of  wolves,  particularly  in  the  place  of  our  residence, 
and  you  also,  we  think,  as  well  as  we,  are  commanded  to  have 
a  care  of  the  honor  of  God  and  of  the  Christian  faith,  and  to 
obey  the  papal  holiness  and  his  imperial  majesty,  we  desire 
that  you  inform  us  what  your  opinion  in  this  matter  is :  for 
our  paternal  mind  and  opinion  is,  that  we  should  insist  that 
the  preachers  everywhere  propound  nothing  new  in  their  pul- 
pits, but  teach  agreeably  to  the  ancient  custom,  and  withdraw 
the  people  from  the  Lutheran  doctrine  to  the  ancient  faith. 
It  will  be  conducive  to  this  end,  if,  agreeably  to  our  request. 


GERMAN    REFORMED    CHURCH.  359 

you  command  the  congregations  not  to  speak  of  things  which 
they  do  not  understand,  to  keep  the  faith  of  their  forefathers, 
and  to  leave  all  action  respecting  it  to  their  superiors ;  in 
order  that  peace,  tranquillity,  and  union  may  be  preserved, 
and  every  one  may  abide  in  his  own,  as  of  old  times :  which 
we  will  graciously  expect  from  you."* 

To  this  address,  the  council  replied,  on  the  next  day,  that, 
as  this  matter  was  then  before  the  diet  assembled  at  Nurem- 
berg, they  would  await  the  issue  of  the  deliberations  of  that 
body,  and  would  thereupon  do  what  they  owed  to  God,  to 
themselves,  and  to  their  people.  This  answer  was  evasive, 
and  the  bishop,  dissatisfied  with  it,  sent  a  delegation  to  request 
them  "  to  command  the  people  of  the  several  congregations 
that  they  refrain  from  all  improper  discourse,  and  abandon 
the  condemned  Lutheran  sect."  Faber,  the  chief  of  the  dele- 
gation, observed  to  the  council,  that  he  could  tell  them,  in 
three  or  four  words,  what  ought  to  be  done.  He  was,  however, 
not  asked  to  say  what  those  three  or  four  words  were.  The 
council  considered  his  remark  insolent,  and  passed  over  it  in 
silence.  They  granted  nothing ;  rightly  judging  that  no  human 
devices  could  prevail  against  God,  and  that  the  light  of  divine 
grace  in  the  hearts  of  the  people  could  not  be  extinguished, 
and  ought  not,  if  it  could. | 

The  infection  of  the  Reformed  doctrine  continued  to  spread. 
The  people,  instead  of  abandoning  the  Lutheran  sect,  aban- 
doned the  priests ;  and  among  these  apostates,  as  they  were 
esteemed,  were  many  of  the  clergy  themselves,  both  regular 
and  secular,  and  their  example  wrought  with  destructive  power 
upon  the  interests  of  the  papacy.  To  prevent  these  defections 
in  future,  the  bishop,  at  the  suggestion  of  Faber,  composed  a 
new  form  of  an  oath  to  be  imposed  upon  candidates  for  the 
ministry  at  their  ordination,  which,  it  was  thought,  would 
effectually  prevent  the  admission  into  the  sacred  office  of  any 
who  might  afterwards  become  Lutherans.     The  form  of  this 


*  Voegelin's  Hist,  in  Fueslin's  Beitrdge,  vol.  iv.  p.  216,  &c. 
f  Ibid.  p.  219. 


360  HISTORY   OF   THE 

oath  was  as  follo-ws :  "  I  profess  the  true,  universal,  apostolic 
faith,  and  SAvear,  by  the  great  God,  and  by  these  his  holy 
gospels,  that  I  have  hitherto  stood,  with  mouth  and  heart,  in 
the  unity  of  the  holy,  universal.  Christian  church,  and  the 
communion  of  the  chief  bishop  at  Rome,  and  will,  in  future, 
firmly  abide  therein ;  that  I  will,  also,  in  all  things,  conform  to 
the  ordinances  of  the  holy  canons,  and  the  very  salutary 
determinations  and  decrees  of  the  God-fearing  mother  church : 
further,  that  I  do  not  and  will  not  assent  to  any  of  the  doc- 
trines condemned  by  the  same  christianly  believing  Roman 
church,  nor  to  any  new  heresies  and  perverse  doctrines,  nor, 
above  all,  to  the  Lutheran  arch-heresy  and  its  adherents ; 
that  to  all  of  them,  and  to  each  particularly,  I  wish  every  ill, 
and  will  voluntarily,  and  with  unfeigned  sincerity,  contradict 
them :  neither  will  I,  in  any  way,  shield  those  who  hold,  dis- 
cuss, preach,  or,  under  any  pretext,  show,  color,  or  art,  either 
secretly  or  openly,  receive  their  loveless  doctrines."* 

These  fathers  sought  new  expedients,  from  day  to  day,  to 
hide  their  reproach,  and  to  sustain  their  falling  greatness. 
The  bishops  had  reserved  to  themselves  the  power  of  granting 
absolution  in  certain  specified  cases,  and  the  guilty  were  there- 
fore obliged,  in  those  cases,  to  go  to  the  episcopal  residence 
for  the  pardon  of  their  sins.  On  Maundy-Thursday,  in  pas- 
sion-week, many  hundreds,  who  came  from  all  parts  of  the 
diocese,  repaired  to  Constance,  to  receive  absolution  from  the 
bishop's  vicar,  either  by  paying  a  pecuniary  fee,  or,  if  they 
had  no  money,  by  passing  around  an  erected  cross,  with  a 
loud  confession  of  their  sins,  and  submitting  to  such  penance 
as  might  be  appointed  for  them.  But,  when  the  light  of  the 
gospel  had  exposed  this  imposture,  few  wanted  the  bishop's 
absolution.  Maundy-Thursday  came,  but  very  few  supplicants 
appeared.  The  paucity  of  the  number  was  a  proof  of  the 
wide-spread  defection  of  her  children  from  the  holy  mother. 
What  was  to  be  done  ?  Ilcr  shame  must  be  covered  by  a  pious 
fraud ;  and  to  this  the  devout  fathers  determined  to  resort. 

*  Voegelin,  in  Fucslin,  vol.  iv.  p.  220. 


GERMAN   REFORMED    CHURCH.  361 

They  hired  a  number  of  supplicants  to  compass  the  penitential 
cross  with  feigned  confessions  in  their  mouths,  and  devoutly- 
granted  them  the  customary  absolutions.  The  sons  and 
daughters  of  the  church  enjoyed  the  scene.  Hugo  and  Faber 
might  feel  some  disturbance  within  them,  but  they,  doubtless, 
affected  a  holy  complacency  in  this  evidence  of  the  health  and 
soundness  of  the  church.  Unfortunately,  the  secret  was 
divulged,  the  enchantment  was  broken,  and  the  mortified  pre- 
lates were  made  the  subjects  of  jest  and  ridicule.* 

As  the  three  evangelical  preachers  could  not  be  reached  by 
episcopal  coercion,  since  the  people  protected  them,  it  was 
determined  to  employ  intrigue.  John  Sprater,  the  pastor  of 
St.  Stephens,  was  persuaded  to  dismiss  Metzler  from  the 
deaconship,  and  to  appoint  in  his  place  a  certain  John  Medler. 
Sprater  yielded,  and  Medler  came  to  Constance  and  began  to 
preach.  When  he  ascended  the  pulpit,  the  people  left  the 
church,  complaining  that  their  shepherd,  who  had  fed  them  with 
the  word  of  life,  was  taken  from  them,  and  they  were  left  in 
the  charge  of  wolves.  The  excitement  became  so  great  as  to 
endanger  the  peace  of  the  city.  The  government  interposed, 
Metzler  was  reinstated,  Sprater  himself  was  commanded  to 
preach  the  pure  gospel,  and  assured  that  the  government  would 
protect  him  if  he  taught  only  what  he  could  sustain  by  the 
divine  Scriptures.     Tranquillity  was  thereby  restored,  f 

The  bishop  addressed  himself  to  the  pope,  and  Adria]!^  was 
not  slow  in  coming  to  the  relief  of  the  afflicted  church.  By 
his  nuncio  at  the  diet  of  Nuremberg,  Cheregatus,  he  trans- 
mitted to  the  council  of  Constance  a  lengthy  and  elaborate 
epistle,  beginning  in  the  usual  style,  "  To  my  beloved  sons : 
health  and  apostolic  benediction  !"  This  letter,  dated  Decem- 
ber 1,  1522,  and  sealed  with  the  fisherman's  ring,  was  accom-  k. 
panied  with  another  from  the  nuncio,  dated  January  12, 1523. 
The  holy  father  indulges,  in  this  paternal  brief,  in  unmeasured 
condemnation  of  Luther  and  his  writings,  and  in  pathetic 
lamentation  over  the  German  people,  who  suffered  themselves 


*  Voegelin,  in  Fueslin,  vol.  iv.  p.  221.  f  Ibid.  p.  222. 

2F  46 


362  HISTORY   OP   THE 

to  be  seduced  by  his  -vvicked  heresies.  "  We  are  equally  sur- 
prised and  pained,"  he  says,  "when  we  consider  that  Martin 
Luther,  whom,  although  he  had  grossly  erred,  we  have  hitherto 
regarded  as  our  little  sheep,  is  fallen  into  such  insanity,  yea, 
rather  into  such  devilish  arrogance,  that  he  despises  the  Chris- 
tian doctrine,  the  decisions  of  the  holy  fathers,  and  the  usages 
of  the  church,  and  is  not  ashamed,  not  so  much  to  introduce 
new  and  adverse  doctrines  and  heresies,  as  to  reproduce  old 
ones,  to  lay  another  foundation  than  is  laid,  and  to  teach 
another  faith  than  our  fathers  have  had ;  as  if  he  alone  were 
led  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  now,  at  the  end  of  the  world,  to  bring 
forth  the  evangelical  truth,  and  as  if  your  fathers,  who  had 
not  this  faith  of  Luther's,  and  were  ready  to  contend,  even 
unto  death,  for  the  contrary  faith  which  he  opposes,  had  been 
immersed  in  damnable  error  and  ignorance.  It  is  truly  won- 
derful that  such  an  arrogance  could  arise  in  the  heart  of  this 
man,  as  to  conceit  that  he  understands  more  than  all  the 
teachers  of  the  church,  the  holy  fathers,  and  the  entire  body 
of  believers.  Yet  we  think  it  more  wonderful  that  the  same 
Martin,  after  he  has  been  hurled,  by  the  permission  of  God, 
on  account  of  his  sins  and  ours,  into  this  hellish  pit  of  pride, 
has  found  not  a  few  only,  but  countless  numbers,  of  both  sexes, 
in  our  German  nation,  which,  from  the  beginning  of  its  con- 
version to  Christ,  has  been  the  most  spiritual,  the  most  stead- 
fast in  the  Christian  faith,  and  the  purest  votary  of  piety 
toward  God  and  of  love  and  righteousness  toward  the  neigh- 
bor, who  not  only  listen  with  patience  to  his  equally  mad  and 
pernicious  doctrine,  which,  together  with  its  inventors,  the 
church  has  in  every  way  condemned,  but  even  receive  it,  and, 
what  is  the  worst,  are  ready  to  defend  it  by  force  of  arms ; 
and  who,  also,  eagerly  buy,  and  read,  and  complacently  speak 
of,  the  very  pernicious  and  poisonous  books  written  by  him 
and  his  followers,  that  teem  with  maledictions,  filthiness, 
wrangling,  and  bitterness,  although,  in  pursuance  of  the  apos- 
tolic sentence,  and  the  imperial  edict,  they  have  been  burned 
in  many  places,"  &c.  &c. 

After  applying  to  the  reformers  the  description  given  of 


GERMAN   REFORMED    CHURCH.  363 

false  teachers,  in  2  Peter  ii.,  his  holiness  exhorts  the  council : 
"  Therefore,  most  beloved,  we  exhort  you,  in  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  and  beseech  you,  for  his  mercy's  sake,  that  ye  suffer 
not  yourselves  to  be  seduced  by  the  errors  which  the  apostle 
has  thus  pointed  out,  as  it  were,  with  his  finger,  but,  as  elect 
sons,  follow  in  the  footsteps  of  your  fathers,  and  of  all  the 
saints,  who  have  trodden  the  known  way  of  evangelical  truth ; 
and  that  you  shun,  even  as  hell,  these  disgusting,  inconstant, 
blasphemous,  devilish,  and,  to  say  all  in  a  word,  destructive 
doctrines,  together  with  their  authors ;  and  not  only  do  not 
yourselves  read  their  poisonous  books,  but  lend  not  your  ears 
to  those  who  read  them,  neither  salute  Lutherans  who  will  not 
repent,"  &c.  &c. 

In  the  conclusion  of  this  tirade,  the  holy  father  entreats  the 
council,  by  the  judgment  of  God,  to  stop  the  farther  printing 
of  the  books  of  the  reformers  in  Constance,  and  to  burn  such 
as  were  already  printed.  He  tells  them  that,  if  they  did  not 
punish  the  perverseness  of  their  printers,  who  eagerly  printed 
Lutheran  books,  but  refused  to  print  such  as  were  written 
against  him  by  Christians,  they  would  not  escape  the  ven- 
geance of  God,  though  they  had  even  been  the  most  beloved. 
They  must  not  imagine,  he  said,  that  they  satisfied  God, 
though  for  themselves  they  preserved  the  faith  whole  and 
unimpaired,  if  they  did  not  use  their  best  exertions  to  remove, 
without  fear,  whatever  might  be  an  oflFence  to  their  brethren ; 
for  he  that  is  not  with  Christ  is  against  him,  and  they  who  do 
not  exterminate  the  mischief  when  in  their  power,  will  be 
charged  before  God  as  if  they  were  the  authors  thereof.  Now 
was  the  time  when  those  who  were  approved  should  be  mani- 
fested ;  and  they  should,  therefore,  place  themselves  as  a  wall 
before  the  house  of  God,  that  they  might  deserve  the  crown 
of  righteousness  that  would  be  given  to  those  who  were 
faithful* 

The  writing  of  such  a  letter  to  the  council,  instead  of  fulmi- 
nating an  excommunication,  was  a  tacit  confession  of  weakness 

*  Voegelin,  Hist,  in  Fueslin,  vol.  iv.  p.  222-230. 


364  HISTORY   OF   THE 

■wliicli  nothing  but  the  necessity  of  the  case  could  have  induced 
a  pope  to  make.  Cheregatus  had  requested  an  early  answer, 
that  he  might  speedily  transmit  it  to  his  holiness ;  but  the 
council  did  not  even  condescend  to  give  an  answer  at  all  to 
either.  A  wonderful  change  had  come  over  their  religious 
feelings.  The  spell  which  had  once  bound  their  consciences 
to  Rome  was  broken ;  the  authority  of  the  holy  see  no  longer 
filled  them  with  the  reverence  and  awe  which  it  once  inspired. 
They  saw,  in  the  light  that  shone  upon  them,  that  the  boasted 
vicegerency  of  Christ  on  earth  was  but  a  human  figment,  and 
they  now  despised  the  molten  and  the  graven  image  which 
they  once  had  worshipped. 

The  sovereign  pontiff  had  addressed  a  similar  brief  to  the 
diet  of  Nuremberg,  dated  November  25,  1522,  which,  says 
Seckendorf,  was  chiefly  filled  with  vehement  railing  against 
Luther,  to  whom  he  imputed  the  prevailing  corruption  of 
morals,  the  invasion  of  ecclesiastical  property,  the  internal 
wars,  and  all  the  mischiefs  arising  from  the  Turkish  arms  and 
other  causes  !  He  rebuked  the  Germans  for  suffering  them- 
selves to  be  seduced  by  a  single  apostate  monk,  sought  to 
alarm  the  secular  rulers  for  the  safety  of  their  thrones,  cast 
about  him  with  terrible  threatenings,  and  admonished  the 
diet  to  imitate  the  pious  example  of  the  council  of  Constance, 
who  committed  John  Huss  to  the  flames.* 

Though  this  epistle  alarmed  many  members  of  the  diet, 
and  raised  in  the  prelates  who  represented  the  spiritual  lord- 
ships, such  a  zeal  for  the  honor  of  the  holy  see,  that  "  they 
vociferated  the  crucify,  crucify,'"  with  great  turbulence  and 
noise,  against  the  reformer,  yet  the  majority  were  far  from 
submitting  quietly  to  the  pontiff's  dictation.  They  demanded 
a  reformation  of  clerical  abuses  in  the  church,  and  the  speedy 
assembling  of  a  general  council  in  some  city  of  Crermany,  the 
members  of  which,  both  ecclesiastics  and  seculars,  should  be 
released  from  their  oath,  and  free  to  speak  and  to  deliberate 
on  matters  concerning  the  honor  of  God  and  the  salvation  of 

*  Seckendorf,  b.  i.  sec.  cxsxvi.  c.  551,  552. 


GERMAN   REFORMED    CHURCH.  365 

the  soul ;  and,  to  quiet  the  religious  commotions,  they  adopted, 
beside  other  regulations,  a  decree  commanding  that  all  preach- 
ers should  teach  the  gospel  agreeably  to  the  exposition  of  it 
in  the  writings  which  the  church  had  approved.*  This  decree 
was  differently  interpreted  by  the  contending  parties  in  Con- 
stance. The  Papists  maintained  that  the  church  intended  by 
the  diet  was  the  Roman  church,  and  the  writings  which  she 
approved,  and  from  which  the  gospel  was  to  be  learned,  were 
the  writings  of  the  fathers  and  the  Papist  divines.  The  Re- 
formed, on  the  contrary,  contended  that  the  church  was  the 
collective  body  of  Christians  throughout  the  world,  and  the 
writings  which  she  approved,  and  received  as  the  fountains 
of  Christian  knowledge,  were  those  of  the  prophets  and  the 
apostles. t  Luther  approved  the  decree,  but  took  it  also  in 
the  sense  of  the  Reformed  in  Constance :  he  admitted,  indeed, 
that  the  fathers  were  meant  by  the  writers  whom  the  church 
approved,  but  presumed  that  the  intention  was  to  make  them 
our  guides  so  far  only  as  they  had  taught  conformably  with 
the  Holy  Scriptures. |  The  decree  found  little  favor  with  the 
council  of  Constance.  They  refused  to  authorize  the  publica- 
tion of  the  imperial  recess  in  their  city.  The  bishop,  there- 
fore, resolved  to  have  it  posted  for  the  information  of  the 
people ;  but,  the  consent  of  the  council  being  necessary,  he 
sent  a  deputation  to  inform  them  of  his  purpose,  and  to  ex- 
press the  hope  that  they  would  not  be  displeased.  "The 
right  reverend  prince,  my  gracious  lord  of  Constance,"  said 
the  chief  of  the  deputies,  "has  received  from  his  imperial 
majesty  a  mandate,  the  same  that  has  also  been  sent  to  your 
honorable  wisdom,  concerning  the  Lutheran  doctrine,  which 
is  conformable  to  the  recess  of  the  states  of  the  empire  in 
their  last  diet  at  Nuremherg.  His  princely  grace  is  minded 
to  have  it  posted  here  in  the  episcopal  residence,  and  in  all 
other  places  within  the  bishopric,  and  thereupon  to  take  mea- 


*  Seckendorf,  b.  i.  sec.  cxxxviii.  c.  5G3. 
f  Yoegelin's  Hist,  in  Fueslin,  vol.  iv.  p.  231. 
I  Seckeudorf,  sec.  cxl.  p.  572. 
2f2 


366  HISTORY   OF  THE 

sures  for  the  punishment  of  such  as  shall  infringe  it.  He 
hopes  your  honorable  wisdom  will  not  be  displeased  there- 
with." The  council  looked  with  suspicion  upon  this  design 
of  the  bishop  to  usurp  their  prerogative;  they  deliberated 
long,  and,  eleven  days  after,  on  the  first  of  July,  sent  a  mes- 
senger to  inform  him  '  that  they  deemed  it  unnecessary  that 
any  person  should  publish  mandates  in  their  city ;  they  had 
always  performed,  and  would  still  perform,  their  duty  as  a 
member  of  the  empire,  and  would  never  consent  that  another 
should  invade  their  office  ;  but,  if  any  one  who  owed  them  alle- 
giance should  commit  an  offence,  they  would  do  in  the  case  what 
they  trusted  they  could  answer  for,  first  of  all,  before  God, 
and  next,  to  his  imperial  majesty."  The  bishop  took  hold  of 
the  last  sentence,  which  he  interpreted  as  a  promise  that  they 
would  not  protect  those  who  should  contravene  the  decree, 
though  nothing  was  farther  from  their  intention.  He  made 
the  first  trial  to  punish  such  offenders,  out  of  Constance,  where 
its  council  had  no  jurisdiction,  by  casting  several  evangelical 
divines  into  prison.  Upon  this,  the  council  warned  him  that 
if  he  should  attempt  similar  proceedings  in  the  city,  he  must 
not  expect  to  be  protected  by  them  from  the  indignation  of 
the  citizens.* 

Notwithstanding  this  warning,  the  bishop  was  resolved,  at 
the  instigation  of  his  spirited  vicar,  to  execute  his  episcopal 
jurisdiction,  and  to  hold  the  secular  authorities  to  what  the 
prelates  had  long  been  accustomed  to  esteem  their  duty.  He 
claimed  a  right  to  bring  the  doctrines  and  the  ministers  of  the 
Reformation  before  his  tribunal,  to  pronounce  sentence  upon 
them  according  to  his  judgment,  and  to  demand  the  execution 
of  it  from  the  secular  authorities.  The  bishops  had  long  ex- 
ercised such  an  authority,  though  it  was  based  upon  nothing 
better  than  usurpation.  At  first,  emperors  and  kings  took 
cognizance  of  religious  affairs  in  their  dominions  ;  for  no  other 
reason,  that  we  know,  except  that  Jewish  and  heathen  rulers 
had  done  the  same.     They  assembled  councils,  presided  over 


*  Voegelin's  Hist,  in  Fueslin,  vol.  iv.  p.  230-234. 


GERMAN   REFORMED    CHURCH.  367 

them,  and  executed  their  decrees.     When  any  of  the  Christian 
community  separated  from  the  church,  or  deviated  from  its 
faith,  the  bishops  became  their  accusers,  and  sought  the  aid 
of  the  civil  government.      By  degrees,  a    distinction    arose 
between  spiritual  and  secular  jurisdiction-.     The  bishops  then 
declared  what  was  heresy,  or  a  violation  of  the  church  laws, 
and  the  secular  rulers  punished  the  offenders.     The  connection 
of  the  bishops  with  the  court  of  Rome,  induced  the  latter  to 
arrogate   to   itself  a  universal  jurisdiction   over   the  whole 
church.     The  pope  instituted  courts  of  inquisition  for  heresy, 
in  divers    places,  which   narrowed  the  jurisdiction  both    of 
bishops  and  of  civil  governments.     The  magistrates  of  cities 
and  provinces  were  obliged  to  bind  themselves  to  the  inquisi- 
tors, by  an  oath,  to  maintain,  with  all  their  power,  the  holy 
Roman  faith ;   to  search  out  heretics ;    to  apprehend  them ; 
and  to  deliver  them  to  the  judges.     Where  the  inquisition  was 
not  established,  the  bishops  prosecuted  dissidents  from  the 
Roman  faith ;  the  civil  rulers  often  delivered  these  into  their 
hands  ;  in  some  places,  the  governments  connived  at  deviations 
from  the  creed  and  worship  of  the  church ;  in  others,  they 
were  themselves  the  prosecutors  of  heretics.     At  the  time  of 
the  Reformation,  jurisdiction  in  religious  affairs  took  a  new 
course.     The  pope  excommunicated  Luther;  but  Luther  de- 
spised the  excommunication.     His  holiness  called  in  the  em- 
peror, and  the  emperor  came ;  but  the  manner  of  transacting 
business  in  the  empire  afforded  relief  to  the  friends  of  reforma- 
tion.    The  emperor  could  act  in  the  empire  only  through  its 
own  diversified  governments  ;  and  these  were  not  of  one  mind. 
Some  of  the  princes  and  states  were  not  willing  to  be  so  bound 
as  not  to  have  it  in  their  power  to  grant  a  free  course  to  the 
preaching  of  the  word  of  God.      Switzerland  had  for  ages 
acknowledged  no  secular  monarch ;  and  many  of  its  states  re- 
fused also  now  to  acknowledge  any  spiritual  master  beside 
God  and  his  word.     Many  of  the  imperial  cities,  fond  of  liberty 
in  other  things,  would  no  longer  consent  to  fetter  the  mind 
and  the  conscience.* 

*  Fueslin,  vol.  v.  Vorrede,  p.  4-9. 


868  HISTORY   OP   THE 

"In  this  state  of  tilings  it  was  that  some  of  the  priests  in 
Constance  began  to  jireach  the  doctrines  of  the  Reformation. 
The  council  believed  that,  if  they  were  sustained  by  the  word  of 
God  in  the  Holy  Scriptures,  they  ought  not  to  be  molested,  and 
demanded  that,  if  their  doctrine  were  erroneous,  it  should  be 
proved  to  be  so  by  that  standard.  The  bishop  would  not  go 
behind  the  received  doctrine  of  the  church,  which,  he  main- 
tained, was  the  true  exposition  of  the  Holy  Scriptures ;  he 
would  not  inquire  anew  whether  it  were  sustained  by  the 
Scriptures  or  not ;  he  would  neither  convince  others  nor  be 
convinced  himself,  but  would  condemn:"  and  he  was  the  more 
detemuined,  because  the  council  of  Constance  were  bound,  by 
a  special  compact,  to  aid  him  in  his  judicial  prosecutions.* 

As  an  incipient  step  for  the  extermination  of  the  Reformed 
doctrine,  and  a  trial  of  strength,  Bartholomew  Metzler,  deacon 
or  assistant  at  the  church  of  St.  Stephens,  was  cited  to  appear, 
on  the  20th  of  October,  1523,  before  the  dean  of  the  chapter 
and  the  episcopal  vicar,  Fergenhans,  to  answer  to  thirty-four 
specifications  of  heresy.  This  citation  created  a  great  sensa- 
tion in  the  city,  which  neither  the  exhortations  of  Metzler, 
who  declared  his  readiness  to  appear,  nor  the  assurance  of  the 
bishop  that  no  violence  was  contemplated,  could  appease. 
The  council  assembled,  on  the  morning  of  that  day,  to  delibe- 
rate on  the  course  they  ought  to  pursue.  While  they  were 
engaged  in  deliberation,  a  delegation  from  the  bishop  appeared 
before  them,  who  addressed  them  thus  :  "  My  gracious  prince 
and  lord  is  informed,"  said  the  speaker,  "that  Bartholomew 
Metzler,  deacon  at  St.  Stephens,  preaches  doctrines  which  the 
holy  councils  have  already  condemned,  on  which  account  he 
is  moved  to  proceed  judicially  against  him ;  for  to  him  does  it 
pertain,  as  the  true  shepherd,  who  looks  continually  to  the 
well-being  of  his  sheep.  But  his  princely  grace  has  learned 
that  some  restless  persons  have  banded  together,  intending  to 
prevent  the  process,  and  to  take  Metzler  under  their  protec- 
tion.    His  princely  grace  hopes  that  your  honorable  wisdom 


*  Fuesliu,  vol.  v.  Yorrede,  p.  4-9. 


GERMAN    REFORMED    CHURCH.  369 

will  neither  take  part  therein  yourselves,  nor  suffer  others  to 
do  so,  and  he  requests  that  you  take  measures  to  prevent  an 
insurrection,  to  the  end  that  he  may  quietly  execute  his  juris- 
diction."* The  council  replied,  that  they  were  assembled  for 
the  pm-posc  of  devising  measures  to  meet  the  emergency,  that 
the  people  may  remain  quiet  and  leave  the  management  of  the 
case  to  them :  they  would  appoint  delegates  to  be  present  at 
the  trial,  and,  through  them,  -would  communicate  their  answer 
to  the  vicar.  They  appointed  the  burgomaster,  Bartholomew 
Blarer,  and  three  of  their  members,  to  repair  to  the  court,  with 
instructions  to  deny  the  vicar's  jurisdiction  in  the  case,  to 
request  a  copy  of  the  charges,  and  to  inform  the  court  that 
the  council,  as  the  rightful  government  of  Constance,  would 
examine  them,  and,  if  they  thought  proper,  would  afterwards 
confer  with  the  bishop  respecting  the  time  and  place  when 
and  where,  and  the  proper  authority  by  which  the  case  should 
be  adjudicated.  They  pledged  their  protection  to  Metzler, 
and,  having  assembled  the  citizens,  informed  them  of  their 
measures,  and  admonished  them  to  remain  quiet. 

The  court  was  organized  at  the  time  of  vespers.  Metzler 
appeared,  attended  by  Wanner  and  Windner,  and  a  great 
multitude  of  citizens  and  strangers.  The  procurator  opened 
the  case  by  a  Latin  address  to  the  vicar.  When  he  con- 
cluded, the  burgomaster  rose,  and  said:  "The  council,  as  the 
rightful  government,  had,  for  pious  reasons,  some  time  ago 
ordered  the  accused  to  preach  the  word  of  God  without  fear 
or  reserve,  and  had  promised  to  protect  him,  so  far  as  he 
preached  only  what  he  could  sustain  by  the  Holy  Scriptures ; 
and  they  had,  for  the  same  reasons,  pledged  their  protection 
in  this  -instance."  He,  therefore,  requested  a  copy  of  the 
charges,  saying,  the  council  would  examine  them,  and  would 
then  consult,  either  alone  or  in  concert  with  the  bishop,  what 
ought  to  be  done.  He  protested,  in  the  name  of  the  council, 
against  the  competency  of  the  court;  and  the  process  wa& 
thus  arrested  in  its  inception. 


*  Fueslin,  vol.  t.  p.  4. 
47 


370  HISTORY  OF  THE 

This  interference  of  the  council,  in  a  case  in  which  the 
bishops  had  so  long  claimed  and  exercised  jurisdiction,  was  a 
stroke  at  the  vitals  of  church  power.  The  contest  which  arose 
from  it  was  a  contest  for  life  or  death.  Submission  M'ould 
have  been  fatal  to  the  bishop's  authority  ;  if  he  yielded  in  this 
case,  he  must  yield  in  every  other,  and  his  power  throughout 
his  bishopric  was  broken  and  annihilated ;  but,  if  he  triumphed 
here,  he  must  triumph  always,  and  all  the  ministers  of  the 
Reformation,  and  all  its  interests,  were  at  his  mercy.  The 
council,  as  well  as  the  bishop,  saw  the  importance  of  the  issue. 
The  contest  was,  therefore,  carried  on  with  the  greatest  perti- 
nacity on  both  sides.  The  bishop  brought  all  his  resources 
into  requisition,  and  the  little  state,  whose  misfortune  it  now 
was  to  be  the  capital  of  the  bishopric,  seemed,  more  than  once, 
although  it  must  be  overwhelmed  with  defeat. 

The  ground  taken  by  the  council  was,  that  Metzler  was 
arraigned  for  teaching  doctrines  which  he  drew  from  the  Holy 
Scriptures,  and  professed  his  ability  and  his  readiness  to  sus- 
tain by  their  testimony.  The  authority  of  the  Scriptures 
could  not  be  set  aside.  Before  the  accused  could  be  con- 
demned, it  must  be  shown  that  his  doctrine  was  erroneous ; 
and  it  must  be  shown  by  the  evidence  of  the  Scriptures  to 
which  he  appealed.  But  the  bishop's  court  charged  as  error 
what  the  Scriptures  taught.  It  presumed  to  sit  in  judgment 
upon  God  and  his  word.  Such  an  authority  the  council  could 
not  recognise  ;  and  they  would,  therefore,  not  suffer  Metzler 
to  be  tried  at  its  tribunal.  They  proposed  that  the  accused 
be  heard  in  the  presence  of  both  parties ;  that  the  bishop's 
divines  should  convince  him  of  error.  If  he  were  vanquished, 
they  would  withdraw  their  protest  and  their  protection,  and 
would  surrender  him  to  the  court  to  be  tried  and  punished  for 
heresy,  if  he  did  not  retract  his  teaching ;  but  if  he  were  victori- 
ous, it  was  both  their  duty  and  their  purpose  to  protect  him. 
The  bishop  urged,  in  his  behalf,  the  right  of  prescription,  the 
obligation  of  his  compact  with  the  council,  the  authority  of  the 
church,  the  pope,  the  emperor,  and  the  states  of  the  empire ; 
he  insisted  that  the  deacon,  as  a  spiritual  person,  and  the 


GERMAN   llEFORMED    CHURCH.  371 

doctrines  of  faith,  as  a  spiritual  subject,  belonged  to  the  juris- 
diction of  the  spiritual  court.  Metzler's  doctrines  needed  no 
examination,  because  the  church  had  already  condemned  them, 
and  the  only  question  to  be  asked  was,  whether  he  held  them. 
It  was  not  to  be  supposed  that  any  decision,  usage,  or  obser- 
vance of  the  church  was  contrary  to  the  Scripture,  inasmuch 
as  the  church  was  established  by  God,  and  by  Christ,  his 
ambassador,  through  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  Christ  had  repeat- 
edly promised  that  he  would  never  forsake  her,  but  would 
abide  with  her  forever  by  his  Spirit.  It  was  incontrovertible, 
that  Ave  ought  to  live  in  obedience  to  the  faith  and  the  ordi- 
nances of  the  holy  church,  and  pay  more  deference  to  them 
than  to  our  own  conceits  ;  "  and  his  princely  grace,  therefore, 
deemed  it  not  only  unnecessary,  but  unbecoming,  highly 
offensive  to  the  common  people,  and  conducive  to  discord  and 
irretrievable  injury,  if,  contrary  to  the  authority  of  the  holy 
church,  and  her  vrell-grounded  traditions,  he  should  grant  any 
disputation  or  conference,  and  thereby  permit  old  errors,  which 
the  holy  church  and  the  general  councils  had,  by  divine  grace 
and  the  Holy  Scriptures,  Avith  great  difficulty,  condemned  and 
suppressed,  to  be  revived,  discussed,  and  subjected  to  ever- 
lasting contention  ;  neither  Avould  his  holiness,  nor  his  impe- 
rial majesty,  nor  the  states  of  the  empire,  sanction  such  a 
proceeding,"  &c.* 

These  negotiations  were  continued  by  deputations  and 
letters,  without  arriving  at  any  important  result,  until  the 
close  of  the  year,  when  the  bishop  called  in  the  aid  of  Ferdi- 
nand, archduke  of  Austria,  and  regent  of  the  empire  for  his 
brother,  Charles  V.  The  city  of  Constance  was  a  member 
of  the  empire.  As  such,  it  was  bound  by  the  decrees  of  the 
imperial  diets,  and  owed  allegiance  to  the  emperor  and  to 
Ferdinand,  his  representative.  The  bishop  hoped  to  reduce 
the  city  to  a  strait  from  which  it  could  not  escape,  by  placing 
it  betAveen  the  imperial  authorities  and  their  edicts,  viz.  the 
edicts  of  Worms  and  of  Nuremberg.     If  they  were  compelled 

*  VoegelLn's  Hist,  in  Fucslin,  vol.  v.  p.  32-38. 


872  HISTORY  OP  THE 

to  execute  these  edicts  in  their  obvious  sense,  the  contest  Tvould 
be  at  an  end ;  and,  if  they  refused  to  obey,  their  disobedience 
would  expose  them  to  the  ban  of  the  empire,  and  arm  the 
whole  imperial  power  against  them.  The  scheme  was  cunningly 
contrived,  but  it  failed,  notwithstanding. 

On  the  22d  of  January,  1524,  an  Austrian  deputation  ap- 
peared before  the  executive  council.     They  were  the  eques- 
trians Hans  Jacob  von  Landau  and  Wolff  von  Honburg,  and 
at  their  head  was  Veit  Suter,  Austrian  secretary,  who  had 
resided  some  time  in  Constance,  in  what  capacity  is  not  stated. 
After  the  flattering  commendations  which  were  customary  in 
the  diplomacy  of  those  times,  the  deputies  complained  that  "the 
Lutheran  doctrine,  though  condemned  and  prohibited  both 
by  his  papal  holiness,  his  imperial  majesty,  and  the  states  of 
the  empire  in  the  diet  of  Worms,  was  boldly  preached  in  Con- 
stance.    Everybody  was  interpreting  the  holy  gospel  accord- 
ing to  his  own  pleasure ;  the  honor  of  the  mother  of  God,  and 
of  all  the  saints,  was  suffering  diminution  contrary  to  the  holy 
faith ;   and  great  error  would  break  in,  that  could  not  after- 
ward, when  they  might  wish  to  do  so,  be  so  easily  prevented 
as  at  the  present  time."    "  It  was  the  good  wish  of  his  princely 
excellency,"  they  said,   "that  Constance  should  continue  to 
maintain  with  him  the  good  understanding  which   had   sub- 
sisted ;  should,  in  a  prudent  way,  root  out  the  errors  of  which 
he  complained ;  should  not  permit  the  gospel  to  be  preached 
in  the  Lutheran  sense,  but  agreeably  to  the  doctrine  of  the 
holy  church ;  should  not  suffer  Lutlieran  books  to  be  sold  and 
circulated ;  and  should  adopt  measures  to  enforce  the  edict  of 
Worms,  and  also  the  recess  lately  published  by  the  states  of 
the  empire,  assembled  at  Nuremberg ;  and,  finally,  his  princely 
excellency  had  commanded  them  to  treat  with  the  council  for 
the  adjustment  of  their  difficulty  with  the  bishop,  in  the  case 
of  Metzler."     The  council  were  particularly  startled  by  the 
introduction   of  the  case  of  Metzler,  and  saw,  at  once,  both 
the  origin  of  this  embassy  and  its  design.     The  greater  coun- 
cil was  assembled,  and  the  two  bodies  jointly  replied  to  the 
Austrian  communication.     They  thanked  the  prince  for  his 


GERMAN   REFORMED    CHURCH.  373 

kind  remembrance  of  Constance,  but  tbej  could  not  forbear 
to  indulge  in  a  little  petulancy  at  such  an  interference  in  their 
internal  affairs.  "Meanwhile,"  say  they,  "an  honorable 
council  may  safely  conclude  that  his  princely  excellency,  as  a 
young  prince,  who  has  never  been  in  Constance,  does  not  at 
all  know  whether  there  be  a  lesser  or  a  greater  council  in 
Constance,  nor  how  the  churches  there  are  called,  nor  if  there 
be  a  pastor  or  a  deacon  preaching  at  St.  Stephen's  ;  from  which 
it  is  easy  to  apprehend  who  it  is  that  originates  these  trans- 
actions, and  instigates  his  princely  excellency."* 

In  their  answer,  the  great  council  complain  of  the  bishop's 
misrepresentations;  they  deny  that  their  preachers  are  Lu- 
therans, and  allege  that  in  their  preaching  they  present  the 
gospel  purely  and  clearly,  without  other  interpretation  than 
is  given  by  the  gospel  itself  and  the  biblical  Scriptures,  all 
in  accordance  with  the  edict  of  Nivremberg ;  they  explain 
the  recent  transactions  in  the  case  of  Metzlcr  and  the  other 
preachers  to  whom  they  had  pledged  their  protection,  showing 
that  their  only  object  is  to  protect  the  preaching  of  the  truth 
as  it  is  taught  in  the  Holy  Scriptures,  and  is  warranted  by 
the  mandate  and  the  recess  o^  Nuremberg ;  they  profess  their 
ready  submission  to  the  emperor  and  the  st^es  of  the  empire, 
and  are  persuaded  that  the  truth,  as  inculcated  by  their 
preachers,  so  far  from  having  a  tendenfcy  to  disorder  and 
insurrection,  would  secure  greater  obedience  to  his  imperial 
majesty  and  his  princely  excellency,  would  advance  the  in- 
terests of  the  house  of  Austria,  and  promote  the  cause  of 
virtue. 

The  Austrian  deputies  took  hold  of  their  professed  sub- 
mission to  the  edict  of  Nuremberg,  and  resolved  not  to  let 
them  escape  under  the  cover  of  general  expressions.  They 
gave  their  answer,  in  writing,  on  the  third  of  February',  in 
which  they  say :  "  Your  statement,  that  your  preachers  pub- 
lish the  lioly  gospel  purely  and  clearly,  with  no  other  inter- 
pretation than  that  of  the  gospel  itself,  and  the  holy  biblical 


*  Voegelin,  in  Fueslin,  vol.  v.  p.  79. 
2G 


374  HISTORY   OF   THE 

writings  that  are  comprehended  in  the  edict  of  Nuremberg, 
and  other  things  comprised  in  your  answer,  and  conducive 
hereto,  afford  us  great  pleasure.  In  order,  now,  that  this 
answer  of  yours  may  be  communicated,  also,  to  your  preachers, 
and  that  they  may  act  conformably  to  it,  and  much  discord 
and  disturbance,  which  the  preachers  have  hitherto  caused, 
may  be  terminated,  and  prevented  in  future,  we  desire,  in  the 
name  of  his  princely  excellency,  that,  for  the  sake  of  peace 
and  unanimity,  you  assemble  all  your  preachers  and  command 
them,  in  our  presence,  that  they  all  preach  the  holy  gospel 
purely  and  clearly,  and  with  no  other  interpretation  than  that 
of  the  gospel  itself  and  the  biblical  writings,  all  in  accordance 
with  the  Nuremberg  mandate ;  that,  for  this  end,  you  cause 
this  mandate  to  be  read  to  them,  and  at  the  same  time  charge 
them  that,  if  our  gracious  lord  of  Constance  should  at  any 
time  accuse  one  or  more  of  them  of  preaching  the  gospel 
otherwise  than  the  Nuremberg  mandate  provides,  and  his 
princely  grace,  as  the  ordinary  in  these  matters,  should  send 
for  and  admonish  them  to  desist,  and,  in  case  of  their  dis- 
obedience, should  proceed  against  them  judicially,  by  inquisi- 
tion, or  in  other  ways,  his  princely  grace  should  not  be 
hindered  or  restrained  by  you  or  your  people  in  his  jurisdic- 
tion and  process,  but  you  would,  on  the  contrary,  in  pursuance 
of  your  treaty  with  his  princely  grace,  aid  and  protect  him  in 
his  undertaking." 

Submission  to  this  demand  would  have  made  the  bishop 
absolute  judge  of  heresy,  and  would  have  terminated  the 
dispute  and  the  reformation  of  Constance  together.  The 
council  accepted  the  former  part  of  the  proposition,  but  sub- 
.  stituted  for  the  latter  the  following :  "  If  any  one  should  act 
contrary  thereto,  (the  edict  of  Nuremberg,)  he  shall  be  kindly 
warned.  If  he  should  not  desist  therefrom,  he  shall  be  con- 
vinced of  his  error,  in  a  public  discussion,  by  the  Holy  Scrip- 
ture alone.  If  he  be  vanquished,  he  shall  desist  from  his 
purpose  and  retract  his  error.  If  he  refuse  to  do  so,  he  shall 
be  forbidden  to  preach,  and  also  otherwise  punished."  To 
this  proposal  the  representatives  of  Ferdinand   could  not 


GERMAN   REFORMED    CHURCn.  375 

accede.  They  viewed  it  as  in  manifest  contradiction  to  the 
profession  of  obedience  to  the  edict  of  Nuremberg,  as  -well  as 
opposed  to  the  established  rights  of  the  bishop  and  the  laws 
of  the  church.  After  quoting  that  edict,  they  define  their 
position  in  the  following  passage  :  "  We  are  wholly  unable  to 
reconcile  with  it  (the  edict)  what  you  mention  in  your  answer, 
that  your  preachers  are  allowed  to  preach  the  gospel  according 
to  their  own  interpretation,  and  that,  if  they  teach  erroneously, 
they  must  be  convinced,  in  a  public  discussion,  by  the  Holy 
Scripture  alone  :  for  the  mandate  makes  no  mention  of  biblical 
Scriptures,  nor  of  a  public  discussion,  nor  of  a  private  inter- 
pretation ;  but  it  says  in  plain  and  express  words,  '  That  the 
holy  gospel  shall  be  preached  according  to  the  writings  which 
the  Christian  church  has  received  and  approved.'  As  you 
well  know,  the  Christian  faith  is  not  founded  upon  the  holy 
biblical  writings  alone,  but  also  upon  the  writings  of  many 
other  holy  teachers,  which  the  holy  Christian  church  has  no 
less  approved  and  received  than  the  Holy  Scriptures,  and 
which  are  indicated  as  such  by  the  mandate.  The  holy  gos- 
pels, moreover,  cannot  be  approved  and  expounded  by  the 
Holy  Scripture  alone  ;  but  this  must  be  done  agreeably  to 
the  decision  of  many  of  the  holy  teachers  whose  writings  have 
been  approved  and  received  by  the  church.  Consequently, 
it  becomes  neither  us  nor  you,  and  will  never  be  meet,  that 
we  explain  the  oft-mentioned  mandate,  where  it  speaks  of 
writings  approved  and  received  by  the  church,  otherwise 
than  according  to  the  letter ;  or  that  we  refer  it  to  a  dis- 
putation."* 

Both  parties  maintained  their  respective  positions  with  in- 
vincible pertinacity.  A  conference  was  proposed  by  the  coun- 
cil, and  accepted  by  the  deputies,  but  it  resulted  in  nothing ; 
and  the  latter  took  their  departure  without  having  accom- 
plished any  thing  for  which  they  had  come.  In  the  mean 
time,  the  council  had  prepared  a  form  of  instruction  to  their 
preachers,  a  copy  of  which  they  transmitted  to  Ferdinand, 

*  Voegclin's  Hist,  in  Fueslin,  vol.  v.  p.  90,  &c. 


376  HISTORY   OF   THE 

by  his  deputation,  and,  having  called  the  preachers  into  their 
presence,  on  the  26th  of  February,  caused  it  to  be  read  to 
them,  and  exacted  from  them  a  solemn  pledge  to  govern  them- 
selves by  it  in  their  future  ministry.  After  a  brief  notice  of 
the  mischiefs  that  were  wrought  by  erroneous  doctrines  that 
were  promulgated,  this  instruction  says  :  "To  provide  against 
these,  especially  to  promote  the  honor  of  Almighty  God, 
it  is  tire  opinion  of  the  council  that  the  preachers  here  in 
future  preach  nothing  at  all  to  the  people  but  the  clear,  pure 
gospel,  in  a  right  Christian  sense,  without  intermingling  human 
additions  which  have  no  foundation  in  the  Holy  Scripture, 
according  to  the  exjalanation  of  the  gospel  itself  and  other 
holy  biblical  writings.  They  shall,  therefore,  take  heed  not 
to  mix  with  it  any  fables,  or  useless  trifles,  or  disputable 
things,  with  which  the  Christian  believer  has  no  concern,  and 
which  he  needs  not  know.  They  shall  farther  forbear  to 
preach  what  would  cause  dissension  among  the  common  people, 
or  might  move  them  against  the  government :  on  the  contrary, 
they  shall  preach  what  is  conducive  to  the  honor  of  God,  and 
serves  to  tranquillize  the  conscience,  and  leads  man  to  the  love 
of  God  and  of  his  neighbor."* 

No  mention  is  here  made  of  the  edict  of  Niiremhery.  The 
council  were,  perhaps,  now  convinced  that  their  interpretation 
of  it  was  untenable.  The  reference  to  "  other  holy  biblical 
writings"  was  ambiguous.  The  evangelical  party  would  in- 
clude in  it  the  writings  of  the  reformers,  and  their  opponents 
those  of  the  Papist  divines.  The  latter  were,  however,  obliged 
by  this  instruction  to  reconcile  their  divines  with  the  Bible, 
or  to  abandon  them ;  and  the  Holy  Scripture  was  thus  esta- 
blished as  the  exclusive  rule  of  faith  and  practice. 

When  Ferdinand  saw  that  nothing  more  could  be  obtained, 
he  professed  to  be  well  pleased  with  what  the  council  had  done, 
or  promised  to  do,  for  his  person  and  the  house  oi  Au%tria^  ex- 
pecting still  better  things  from  them  at  a  future  day ;  and  the 
wily  politician  now  remitted,  through  Suter,  who  remained  in 

*  Voegelin's  Hist,  iu  Fuesliu,  vol.  v.  p.  95. 


GERMAN   REFORMED    CHURCH.  377 

Constance,  a  sum  of  money  which  had  been  long  due  for  pen- 
sions to  a  number  of  influential  citizens,  by  virtue  of  a  treaty 
concluded  with  the  emperor  Maximilian,  in  1510,  and  pro- 
mised a  farther  sum,  to  liquidate  the  balance  of  ai'rears.  The 
persons  to  whom  this  money  was  due  were  three  members  of 
the  lesser  council,  twenty  of  the  greater  council,  and  one  hun- 
dred of  the  citizens.  This  unexpected  payment,  it  might  be 
supposed,  would  win  over  those,  by  whom  the  rest  might  be 
won  ;  but  the  regent  was  mistaken :  the  council  thanked  him 
for  this  act  of  kindness,  and  persisted  in  their  measures  as 
before.* 

During  these  transactions,  the  bishop  and  his  chapter 
removed  Wanner  from  the  pastorship  of  the  cathedral,  and 
appointed  in  his  place  the  Dominican,  Antonius  Pirata.  The 
council  made  no  opposition  here;  but,  at  the  solicitation  of 
the  citizens,  they  authorized  Wanner  to  preach  in  the  church 
of  St.  Stephen's,  where  he  now  labored  with  the  same  assiduity 
and  success  as  before.  Suter  complained  to  the  council,  that 
he  preached  every  day ;  and  this  the  pious  secretary  deemed 
scandalous  If  This  bigoted  Austrian  had  heard  Metzler  say, 
in  one  of  his  sermons:  "An  angel  may  come  from  heaven; 
councils  may  assemble,  as  many  as  you  please  ;  diets  may  de- 
cree what  they  will ;  if  it  be  contrary  to  the  word  of  God,  you 
must  not  attend  to  it,  nor  put  faith  in  it,  but  obey  the  divine 
word."  This  sentiment  he  thought  disloyal  and  seditious ; 
and  he  applied  to  the  council  for  the  punishment  of  the 
preacher.  But,  weary  of  his  annoyances,  the  council  gave 
him  an  indignant  rebuke,  and  expressed  their  desire  that,  if 
he  had  no  other  employment  in  their  city,  he  would  take  up 
his  residence  elsewhere. J 

All  the  attempts  against  Metzler  and  Wanner  having  failed, 
the  next  object  of  persecution  was  Windner.  The  bishop's 
fiscal  applied  for  a  soldier  to  aid  in  arresting  him,  but  was 
refused.      The  attack  was  feebly  made,  and  soon  abandoned, 

*  Voegelin's  Hist,  in  Fueslin,  vol.  v.  p.  97.  t  ^^*^-  P-  ■^^^• 

X  Hottinger,  p.  156. 
2g2  48 


378  HISTORY   OF   THE 

the  prelates  seeing  that  the  cause  which  they  sought  to  sup- 
press was  grown  above  their  strength. 

On  the  eleventh  day  of  June,  1524,  Wanner  and  his  two 
associates  petitioned  the  council  for  permission  to  vindicate 
their  doctrine,  in  a  public  discussion,  before  the  two  councils, 
from  the  aspersions  of  their  adversaries,  Pirata  and  his  party, 
in  the  hope  of  thus  putting  calumny  to  silence,  preventing 
vexatious  annoyance,  and  preparing  the  way  for  a  reformation 
in  the  externals  of  religion,  and  the  removal  of  the  popish 
ceremonies  in  the  forms  of  worship.  The  council  yielded  to 
their  wishes,  and  appointed  the  19th  of  August  for  a  public 
disputation.  The  Reformed  divines  propounded  thirteen 
theses  for  discussion,  and  Pirata  professed  his  readiness  to 
meet  them.  But,  before  the  appointed  day  arrived,  an  im- 
perial inliihitorium  came.  Pirata  and  his  party  now  refused 
to  meet  their  antagonists,  and  the  purpose  of  the  reformers 
was  thus  frustrated.* 

There  were  in  Constance,  at  this  time,  three  foundations, 
viz.,  the  Cathedral,  St.  Stephen's,  and  St.  John's,  whose 
provosts  were  appointed  at  Rome.  The  number  of  parish- 
preachers  was  nine.  Of  convents,  there  were  thirteen,  seven 
male  and  six  female,  belonging  to  five  different  orders. f  In 
addition  to  these,  were  the  bishop  and  his  court.  The  three 
evangelical  preachers  had,  therefore,  a  formidable  host  to 
contend  with  :  and  yet  they  prevailed,  by  the  mere  preaching 
of  the  gospel;  for,  let  it  be  remembered,  that  the  civil 
authority  did  no  more  than  protect  them  in  the  exercise 
of  their  ministry :  it  Avas  the  power  of  truth  that  achieved 
the  victory. 


*  Hottinger,  p.  157.  f  Ibid.  p.  158. 


GERMAN   REFORMED   CnURCH.  379 


CHAPTER  III. 

ORIGIN  AND  TROGRESS  OP  THE  REFORMATION  IN  BERN. 

A  THIRD  important  point,  from  wliicli  the  Reformation  was 
diffused,  was  the  city  of  Bern,  the  capital  of  the  canton  of  the 
same  name.  This  city  was  founded  in  1191,  by  Berthold  V., 
duke  of  Zahringen,  for  the  purpose  of  restraining  his  refrac- 
tory nobles.  In  ,1218,  it  was  made  a  free  imperial  city,  by  a 
charter  from  the  emperor  Frederick  II.  It  was  destroyed 
by  fire  in  1405,  after  which  it  was  rebuilt  in  its  present  re- 
gular form. 

Until  the  close  of  the  last  century,  the  government  of  the 
canton  was  vested  in  a  council,  called  the  council  of  two  hun- 
dred, but  consisting  of  two  hundred  and  ninety-nine  members, 
who  were  chosen  exclusively  from  among  the  citizens  of  Bern. 
A  lesser  council,  chosen  by  the  great  council  from  its  own 
members,  exercised  the  executive  power.  A  schultheiss  was 
the  chief  magistrate.  The  commonwealth  being  in  its  origin 
limited  to  the  town,  all  the  citizens  who  possessed  a  house  in 
it  had  a  vote  in  the  general  assembly  of  the  people,  which 
elected  the  council  and  the  magistrates.  By  degrees,  the 
members  of  the  council  came  to  hold  their  office  during  life. 
The  vacancies  which  occurred  were  then  filled  by  the  council 
itself,  which  held  an  election  for  that  purpose  once  in  ten 
years.  The  selections  were  made  chiefly  from  a  few  wealthy 
and  noble  families.  As  the  city  acquired  territory,  its  go- 
vernment was  extended  over  it.  Many  of  the  neighboring 
nobility  became  citizens  of  Bern.  Others,  who  fought  against 
the  city,  were  defeated,  and  were  compelled  to  surrender  or 
to  sell  to  it  the  whole  or  a  part  of  their  domains.  This  was 
the  origin  of  the  canton  of  Bern. 


380  HISTORY   OF   THE 

In  1415,  Bern  conqueredxthe  greater  part  of  Argau  from 
the  Austrians.  The  Paijs  de  Vaud  was  -wrested  from  the 
duke  of  Savoy  in  1536,  and  subsequently  confirmed  by  treaty. 

This  city  was  the  scene  of  an  infamous  fraud,  perpetrated 
by  the  Dominican  friars,  near  the  commencement  of  the  six- 
teenth century,  to  sustain  their  cause  by  miraculous  testimony, 
in  their  controversy  with  the  Franciscans  about  the  immacu- 
late conception  of  the  virgin  Mary.*  Here  Sampson  gained 
so  rich  a  harvest  by  the  sale  of  indulgences,  and  made  the 
pardon  of  sins  and  the  felicity  of  heaven  so  cheap,  that  a 
Bernese  nobleman  and  field-officer  obtained  them,  first  for 
himself,  then  for  his  family  and  ancestors,  then  for  his  com- 
mand of  five  hundred  men,  and,  finally,  for  all  the  subjects  of 
his  seignory,  at  the  cost  of  a  dapple-gray  steed  If  Here,  too, 
another  solemn  farce  was  acted,  as  late  as  the  year  1518. 
Bern  honored  St.  Anna,  the  mother  of  the  holy  virgin,  with 
peculiar  devotion.  In  honor  of  her,  she  had  formed  a  holy 
brotherhood,  erected  altars,  and  consecrated  images.  To 
complete  their  work  of  piety,  and  to  smooth  the  way  to 
heaven,  they  needed  yet  some  relic  of  the  venerated  saint. 
To  procure  this,  they  sent  the  chevalier  Albert  vom  Stein 
with  letters  to  the  king  of  France,  and  the  abbot  of  a  monas- 
tery in  an  island  of  the  Saone,  near  Lyons.  For  a  valuable 
consideration,  the  custor  of  the  convent  delivered  to  the  am- 
bassador a  skull,  carefully  wrapped  in  silk,  which,  he  said,  was 
the  head  of  St.  Anna.  The  head  of  St.  Anna !  This  was 
more  than  could  have  been  hoped  for.  The  news  of  this 
happy  success  preceded  the  chevalier's  return.  Bern  was 
filled  with  joy.  The  precious  relic  was  received  at  one  of  the 
gates  of  the  city,  with  great  pomp,  and  was  borne  in  solemn 
procession  to  the  altar  in  the  church  of  the  Dominicans.  Here 
it  was  enclosed  with  a  costly  lattice-work.  It  was  encircled 
with  wax-tapers  and  incense.  The  bishop's  sufiragan  endowed 
it  with  indulgences  for  pious  pilgrims.     The  chevalier  pre- 

*  See  McClaine's  translation  of  Mosheim,  cent.  xvi.  ch.  i.  sec.  i.  note  h. 
f  Hettinger,  p.  29. 


GERMAN   REFORMED   CHURCH.  881 

sentcd  a  splendid  suite  of  furniture  and  priestly  vestments  for 
the  celebration  of  masses.  The  fraternity  were  preparing  an 
expensive  shrine,  to  contain  the  sacred  treasure.  And  in  the 
midst  of  all  this  devotion,  intelligence  arrived  from  the  abbot 
that  the  venerated  relic  was  not  the  head  of  St.  Anna,  but  a 
bone  taken  from  the  charnel-house,  which  a  villain,  whom  he 
had  suitably  punished,  had  imposed  on  him !  At  once,  every 
thing  was  changed;  the  previous  felicitation  gave  place  to 
shame  and  reproach,  and  the  fraternity  was  dissolved,  amidst 
the  scoffs  and  derision  of  the  profane  multitude.* 

This  was  truly  a  sottish  superstition ;  and  awful  was  the 
darkness  where  such  mummeries  could  pass  for  religion  and 
the  way  of  reconciliation  with  God.  But  the  abuse  had  now 
reached  its  limit,  and  a  reaction  was  destined  to  begin.  Four 
years  later,  Nicholas  Manuel  was  suffered  with  impunity  to 
ridicule  the  popes  and  the  clergy  in  successive  farces,  that 
were  acted  in  the  streets  of  Bern,  and  the  sale  of  indul- 
gences was  burlesqued  in  ballads,  that  were  sung  throughout 
the  city.f 

Bern,  like  Basel  and  Constance,  was  indebted  both  to 
Luther  and  Zwinglc  for  its  spiritual  illumination.  The  first 
of  Luther's  writings  were  circulated  here,  as  early  as  1518,  by 
a  bookseller,  who  brought  them  from  the  press  of  Frobenius,  in 
Basel-l  Zwingle  published  nothing  under  his  proper  name, 
or  in  the  vernacular  tongue,  before  the  year  1522.  Here  it 
must  be  admitted  that  Luther's  mode  of  action  was  better 
adapted  than  Zwingle's  to  general  and  extensive  effect.  His 
German  writings,  which  were  well  adapted  to  the  capacity  of 
the  common  people,  gave  him  a  kind  of  omnipresence  wher- 
ever the  German  language  Avas  understood;  while  Zwingle, 
confining  himself,  in  his  public  instructions,  to  preaching, 
could  operate  only  in  one  place  at  the  same  time ;  and,  when 
his  doctrine  was  carried  abroad  by  others,  it  was  generally 
under  all  the  disadvantage  of  an  imperfect,  and  often  of  a 

*  Hottinger,  p.  31.  f  Gieseler's  Lehrb.  vol.  iii.  p.  1G9,  note  100. 

X  Hottinger,  p.  37,  38. 


382  HISTORY   OP   THE 

distorted,  representation.  There  was  everywhere  abundant 
room  to  misrepresent  him;  and  the  falsehoods  which  were 
circulated  had  time  so  to  preoccupy  men's  minds,  that  when 
writings  from  his  pen  afterwards  appeared,  they  were  read,  if 
read  at  all,  through  the  medium  of  very  injurious  prejudices. 
If  Zwingle  had,  from  the  commencement,  like  Luther,  ad- 
dressed himself  to  the  common  people,  in  short,  plain,  practical 
expositions  of  gospel  truth,  through  the  press,  it  is  not  im- 
probable that  the  effect  of  his  labors  would  have  been  much 
more  extensive  than  it  was :  he  might  have  preoccupied  the 
minds  of  his  hearers  while  they  were  free  from  an  unfriendly 
bias ;  and,  having  gained  over  the  people,  their  rulers  could 
not  afterwards  have  shut  out  his  doctrine  from  any  of  the 
cantons.  But  Zwingle  was  afraid  of  popular  commotions,  if 
the  people  were  excited  to  act  without  the  heads  of  the  church 
and  the  secular  rulers  ;  he  chose,  therefore,  to  address  himself 
first  to  these,  and  to  other  men  of  influence,  whose  authority 
might  control  the  multitude  in  its  movements,  and  abstained 
from  publishing  any  thing  in  the  popular  style  and  language, 
until  he  saw  those  who  ought  to  have  been  the  leaders  of  the 
Reformation  take  their  stand  against  it. 

The  chief  instrument  in  the  reformation  of  the  city  of  Bern 
was  Berthold  Haller.  He  was  a  native  of  Aldingen,  in  the 
circle  of  Suabia.  At  Pforzheim,  where  he  studied,  Melancthon 
was  his  fellow-student.  At  the  university  of  Cologne,  he 
obtained  the  degree  of  Baccalaureus  in  Theologia.  In  1520, 
he  held  the  situations  of  canon,  cantor,  and  cathedral-preacher 
in  Bern,  and  was  honored  with  the  attentions  of  the  principal 
families  of  the  city.  From  his  first  appearance  in  this  ministry, 
he  distinguished  himself  as  a  preacher  of  evangelical  doctrines, 
and  an  ardent  friend  of  Zwingle.  After  a  very  active  and 
laborious  ministry,  during  which  he  bore  his  full  share  of 
painful  trials,  he  died,  in  the  midst  of  his  flock,  in  1536,  at  the 
early  age  of  forty-four  years,  deeply  lamented  by  all  the 
friends  of  gospel-truth  and  piety.* 


Hottinger,  p.  54,  713. 


GERMAN  EEFORMED   CHURCH.  383 

Haller's  first  helper  in  the  ministry  of  the  Reformation  was 
Sebastian  Meyer,  a  monk  of  the  order  of  St.  Francis,  and 
reader,  lecturer,  or  preacher  of  the  convent.  He  was  a  learned 
theologian,  deeply  versed  in  the  scholastic  divines,  bold,  ardent, 
and  enterprising.  After  his  conversion,  he  lamented  the  time 
as  lost  which  he  had  spent  in  the  meagre  study  of  the  school- 
men. He  was  delighted  with  the  writings  of  the  reformers, 
and  devoted  his  labors  to  the  exposition  of  the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures and  the  propagation  of  the  pure  doctrine  of  the  gospel. 

Besides  these  devoted  men,  there  were  not  wanting  in  Bern 
others  who  loved  the  gospel,  and  hailed  the  dawn  of  reforma- 
tion in  the  work  of  God,  whose  fame  had  reached  them  from 
Zurich  and  Witte7nberg.  Prominent  among  these  were  the 
banneret  John  von  Weingarten,  the  counsellor  Bartholomew 
Mey,  his  sons  AVolfgang  and  Claudius,  and  his  grandsons 
Jacob  and  Benedict,  and,  more  eminent  still,  the  family  Yon 
Wattenweil.  The  father,  Jacob  von  Wattenweil,  who  presided 
as  chief  magistrate  over  the  republic,  had  read  the  writings  of 
Luther  and  Zwingle,  and  was,  by  them,  won  over  to  the 
Reformation.  His  son  Nicolas  was  the  provost  of  the  cathe- 
dral. He  enjoyed  the  pope's  favor,  who  spared  no  pains  to 
attach  him  to  his  interests,  and  was  distinguished  by  the  noble 
qualities  of  his  mind,  as  well  as  by  the  nobility  of  his  rank 
and  his  eminent  station  and  connections.  Amidst  all  the 
opposition  of  the  world,  these  men  were  enlightened  by  divine 
grace,  and  became  the  friends  and  protectors  of  the  humble 
ministers  of  Jesus  Christ  amidst  the  discouragements  that 
surrounded  them.  As  the  friend  of  Haller,  Nicolas  usually 
read  the  letters  which  the  reformer  received  from  Zwingle,  for 
whom  he  entertained  the  highest  regard. 

It  was  to  be  expected  that  the  ability  and  zeal  of  the  preach- 
ers, and  the  countenance  of  these  distinguished  patrons,  would 
secure  no  little  success  to  the  cause :  and  in  this  hope  its 
friends  were  not  disappointed ;  but  there  was,  at  the  same 
time,  a  formidable  array  of  enemies,  who  were  not  less  zealous 
in  their  opposition ;  and  complete  success  was,  therefore,  not 
to  be  obtained  without  a  long  and  arduous  conflict. 


384  HISTORY   OP   THE 

The  bishop  o^  Lausanne,  to  whose  diocese  the  ciij  o^  Bern, 
as  well  as  a  part  of  the  territory,  belonged,  sought  to  instigate 
the  people  against  the  reforming  preachers,  by  a  pastoral 
letter  ^Yhich  he  addressed  to  them  ;  but  the  stroke  was  averted 
by  their  speedy  reply.  The  Papist  clergy  endeavored  to 
divest  the  people  of  their  books ;  they  sought  to  render  the 
preachers  odious  by  calumny ;  they  applied  to  the  government 
for  an  order  forbidding  the  reading  of  books  and  the  preaching 
of  doctrines  that  militated  against  the  Romish  faith ;  but  in 
all  these  attempts  they  failed.  Haller  was,  at  one  time,  so 
discouraged,  that  he  had  thoughts  of  retiring  from  the  contest, 
and  spending  a  season  in  the  pursuit  of  learning  at  Basel;  but 
the  expostulations  of  Zwingle,  who  urged  the  danger  of  leaving 
his  little  flock  shepherdlcss  in  his  absence,  confirmed  him  in 
the  purpose  of  abiding  the  issue.*  * 

About  this  time,  an  event  took  place,  which,  if  it  did  not 
manifest  the  hold  which  the  new  doctrines  had  taken  in  the 
soil  of  Bern,  proved,  at  least,  that  the  secular  rulers  stood 
less  in  awe  of  the  priesthood  than  in  former  times,  and  were 
resolved  to  reclaim  the  authority  which  the  lordly  prelates 
had  usurped.  George  Brunner,  a  deacon  of  the  dean  of 
3Iin8mgen,  in  the  territory  of  Bern,  but  within  the  diocese  of 
Constance,  had,  in  one  of  his  sermons,  described  the  pope  as 
antichrist.  He  was  subsequently  called  to  the  parish  of 
Solienstdtten,  where  many  came  from  the  neighboring  parishes 
to  attend  his  ministry.  The  dean,  supported  by  four  of  his 
capitulars,  applied  to  the  council  for  the  removal  of  Brunner 
from  their  chapter.  Bi-unner  proposed  to  defend  his  doctrine 
by  the  Holy  Scripture.  The  government  determined  to  hear 
his  defence,  and  appointed  a  commission,  consisting  of  seven 
counsellors  and  as  many  clerics,  to  sit  in  judgment  on  the  case. 
Some  delay  having  occurred,  the  dean  procured  an  order  from 
the  bishop  to  send  the  accused  to  Constance  for  trial.  This 
order  the  council  refused  to  execute  or  to  sanction,  and  the 
dean  was  compelled  to  bring  his  charges  before  their  commis- 

*  Hottinger,  p.  87. 


GERMAN   REFORMED    CHURCH.  385 

sion,  or  abandon  them.  lie  appeared,  accordingly,  with  his 
four  capitulars,  with  twelve  specifications  of  heresy;  and 
Brunner  made  his  defence.  The  commission  declared  the 
defence  satisfactory ;  the  council  ratified  their  verdict ;  Brun- 
ner remained  in  his  benefice ;  and  the  dean  was  adjudged  to 
pay  the  cost.* 

This  act  was  a  palpable  invasion  of  the  bishop's  prerogative, 
and  of  the  jurisdiction  of  the  spiritual  courts  ;  and  to  this  Avas 
added  another,  in  the  following  year.    The  bishop  of  Lausanne 
had  assembled  his   clergy,  who  resided  within  the  Bernese 
domain,  and  charged  them  in  relation  to  the  so-called  Lutheran 
errors ;  but,  when  he  proposed  to  go  farther,  and  gave  notice 
of  an  episcopal  visitation,  the  council  sent  him  a  message  for- 
bidding him  to  come  for  that  purpose  within  their  territory.f 
The  government  were  evidently  in  ill  humor  with  the  hierarchy. 
For  this  they  found  sufficient  reason  in  the  encroachments, 
the   arrogance,  the  tyranny,  the  grasping  avarice,  and  the 
licentious  manners  of  the  clergy  of  all  ranks,  without,  perhaps, 
entertaining  any  doubt  about  the  doctrines  and  ceremonies  of 
the  church.     But  this  ill  humor  disposed  them  to  look  with 
favor  upon  such  as  proposed  a  reformation,  and  to  listen  with 
patience  to  their  defence  when  the  priesthood  attempted,  for 
such  a  reason,  to  crush  them.     The  feelings  of  many  toward 
the  reformers  were,  nevertheless,   changed  by  the   calumnies 
which  were  circulated,  especially  the  reports  that  were  spread 
of  the  ruinous  efi"ects  which  the  new  doctrine  was  said  to  have 
produced  in  Zurich.    "  The  priests,  the  monks,  and,  especially, 
the  prelates,"  says  Anselm,  in  his  Chronicles  of  Bern,  "voci- 
ferated, '  It  is  at  us,  now ;  it  will  next  be  at  the  nobles :  their 
free  living,  their  rents  and  tythes,  must  be  begged.     Let  us 
unite  against  these  seditious  heretics.'     And  by  this  outcry, 
going  forth  daily,  many  of  the  nobles,  the  powerful,  and  the 
wealthy  were  hardened  against  even  hearing  the  word  of  God, 
much  more  against  receiving  it.     They  called   devilish   and 
hellish  what  was  divine  and  evangelic. "^     The  delegate  of 

*  Hottingor,  p.  88.  f  Ibid.  p.  128. 

X  Oieseler,  vol.  iii.  p.  161,  n.  78. 
2H  49 


386  HISTORY   OF   THE 

Bern  warned  tlie  diet  held  in  that  citj,  in  July,  1523,  of  the 
disastrous  tendency  of  the  new  doctrine.  "  Dear  confederates," 
said  he,  "take  measures  in  time,  lest  Lutheranism,  and  those 
who  are  engaged  in  it,  get  the  ascendency ;  for  their  preachers 
.'have  brought  things  into  such  a  state  in  their  city,  that,  if  the 
rulers  wished  to  mend  it,  they  could  not.  It  is  come  so  far, 
that  a  man  is  not  safe  in  his  own  house.  There  is  need  that 
he  should  take  to  himself  others  to  protect  him  by  force  of 
arms.  The  condition  in  the  country  is  such,  that  the  peasants 
refuse  to  pay  either  rents  or  tythes ;  and  in  the  city  and  the 
country,  there  is  such  a  discord  that  the  like  of  it  has  never 
been  heard  of."*  These  calumnies  wrought  particularly  upon 
the  nobles,  who  had  rents  and  tythes  to  demand,  and  upon 
the  wealthy  and  powerful,  who  had  much  at  stake :  and  their 
effect  verified  the  remark  of  Jesus  :  "  How  hardly  shall  they 
that  haA'c  riches  enter  into  the  kingdom  of  God  !"f 

Under  such  impressions,  the  government  resolved  upon  a 
conservative  course ;  and,  at  the  instance  of  the  lesser  council, 
which  consisted  of  the  nobility,  they  published  a  mandate,  in 
June,  1523,  in  which  they  order,  "  That  all  those  who  under- 
take to  preach,  shall  publish  freely,  openly,  and  without  con- 
cealment, the  holy  gospel  and  the  doctrine  of  God,  and  nothing 
else :  in  like  manner,  what  they  trust  they  can  defend  and 
prove  by  the  holy  Scripture ;  namely,  the  four  Evangelists, 
Paul,  the  Prophets,  and  Bible,  in  a  word,  by  the  Old  and 
New  Testament;  and  that  they  wholly  omit  all  other  doctrines, 
disputations,  and  vanities  not  conformable  to  the  holy  gospels 
and  Scriptures,  whether  they  be  written  and  published  by 
Luther  or  by  other  doctors.  "| 

This  mandate  was  designed  to  arrest  the  farther  progress 
of  "  Lutheranism,"  which  its  originators  honestly  believed  to 
be  an  invention  of  Luther,  and  of  others  like  him,  and  unsup- 
ported by  the  Holy  Scriptures,  while  the  doctrine  and  worship 
of  the  church  were  those  which  tjie  prophets  and  the  apostles 

*  Fueslin,  vol.  ii.  p.  26.  f  Mark  x.  23. 

%  Gieseler,  vol.  iii.p.  109,  note  102. 


GERMAN   REFORMED    CHURCH.  .  387 

had  taught.  They  knew  little  of  the  contents  of  the  Bihle ; 
they  had,  probably,  never  seen  a  copy :  how  vague  then- 
notion  of  it  was,  appears  in  their  confused  description  of  it, 
as  "the  four  Gospels,  Paul,  the  Prophets  and  Bible,  in  a 
"word,  the  Old  and  New  Testaments:"  but  they  had  faith  in 
the  church,  and  did  not  doubt  that,  whatever  the  sacred 
volume  was,  she  had  given  the  true  exposition  of  it  in  her 
doctrine  and  ceremonies.  Hence  they  were  astonished  when 
they  learned  that  the  Reformers  rejoiced  at  their  mandate, 
and,  instead  of  being  stopped  by  it  in  their  career,  were 
encouraged  to  go  onward  with  greater  boldness.  Zwingle, 
having  preached  a  sermon  on  divine  and  human  righteousness, 
as  a  refutation  of  the  injurious  charge  that  his  doctrine  was 
inimical  to  social  order  and  personal  security,  now  published 
it,  in  an  enlarged  form,  with  a  dedication  to  his  friend,  Nicolas 
von  Wattenweil,  in  which  he  expressed  his  great  gratification 
that  the  council  had  not  only  refused  to  comply  with  the 
wishes  of  the  bishop  of  Lausanne  for  the  suppression  of  the 
new  doctrine,  but  had  also  commanded  their  preachers  to 
declare  the  gospel  freely.* 

The  lesser  council,  on  discovering  their  mistake,  would 
gladly  have  retraced  their  steps ;  but,  seeing  that  their  man- 
date was  very  popular,  feeling  themselves  committed  by  it, 
and  afraid  of  the  people,  they  did  not  venture  to  revoke  it ; 
but  they  endeavored,  by  all  manner  of  perversion  and  evasion, 
to  render  it  inoperative  and  nugatory.  The  greater  council, 
however,  observed  it  in  good  faith. f 

The  very  measure  which  had  been  adopted  to  expel  the 
Reformers  from  Bern,  having  served  only  to  strengthen  them 
in  their  position,  other  means  were  sought  to  effect  the  same 
object ;  the  preachers  Avere  closely  watched,  and  it  was  not 
long  until  an  occasion  presented  itself.  The  island  of  St. 
^lichael,  in  the  Aar,  at  Bern,  contained  a  convent  of  nuns,  who 
were  consecrated  to  the  saint  whose  name  the  island  bore. 


*  Voegelin's  Jahrt.  zu  Zwingli's  Leben,  p.  36. 
f  Gieseler,  p.  170,  note  102. 


388  HISTORY   OF  THE 

The  nuns  were  accustomed  to  celebrate  the  21st  of  September, 
which  was  sacred  to  their  saint,  by  a  solemn  festival;  and, 
on  these  occasions,  many  of  the  clergy  were  in  attendance. 
Haller  and  Meyer  being  now  present,  the  former  entered  into 
conversation  with  some  of  the  nuns,  and  remarked  to  one  of 
them,  Clara,  the  daughter  of  his  friend,  Claudius  Mey,  that 
the  merit  of  monachism  was  imaginary,  whereas  the  matrimo- 
nial state  was  a  divine  institution.  This  remark  was  construed 
as  evidence  of  a  design  to  violate  a  law  which  forbade  to  carry 
oflf  a  nun,  under  the  penalty  of  death.  The  case  was  brought 
before  the  lesser  council,  whom  the  accusers  petitioned  to 
banish  the  offenders  during  life,  instead  of  inflicting  the  punish- 
ment of  death.  The  council  granted  their  petition,  and  the 
enemies  seemed,  for  a  moment,  to  triumph ;  but  the  matter 
being  carried  to  the  greater  council,  the  judgment  was  there 
reversed ;  the  preachers  were  acquitted,  and  their  persecutors 
suffered  a  second  defeat.  This  result  was  justly  regarded  as 
a  great  triumph  of  the  friends  of  reformation :  it  increased 
their  confidence  and  strengthened  their  cause,  while  it  dis- 
couraged their  adversaries ;  and  its  effects  were  visible  in  the 
continued  progress  of  the  truth. 

Notwithstanding  the  care  and  the  vigilance  of  the  opponents^ 
the  light  of  the  gospel  penetrated  into  the  darkness  of  the  con- 
vents. At  Kd nigs felden,  on  the  river  Aar,  was  a  monastery  of 
nuns  of  the  Franciscan  order,  who  were  consecrated  to  St.  Clara, 
their  tutelary  saint.  To  this  institution  many  of  the  noble 
families  of  Switzerland  and  its  vicinage  sent  their  daughters,  to 
take  the  veil.  The  abbess,  who  presided  over  the  monastery  at 
the  time  of  the  Reformation,  was  Catherine  Trucksess.  Among 
the  nuns  were  Beatrice,  sister  of  the  bishop  of  Constance; 
Agnes,  daughter  of  Caspar  von  Miillenen,  a  member  of  the 
lesser  council ;  and  Margaret,  sister  of  the  provost,  Nicolas 
von  Wattenweil.  The  nuns  of  this  abbey  read  Zwingle's  tract 
on  Christian  liberty,  and  some  of  the  writings  of  Luther,  and 
were  moved  by  them  to  read  and  examine  the  Holy  Scriptures. 
Their  minds  were  opened  to  see  the  truth  as  it  is  in  Christ ; 
they  learned  to  understand  the  nature  of  true  Christian  piety; 


GERMAN   REFORMED    CHURCH.  389 

they  saw  tliat  a  monastic  life  was  neither  enjoined  nor  com- 
mended by  the  word  of  God,  and  that  the  religion  which  the 
divine  Saviour  taught  required  them  to  act  their  part  well  as 
members  of  the  social  body,  not  in  the  gloomy  seclusion  of  a 
convent,  and  its  tedious  round  of  lifeless  forms,  but,  on  the 
great  theatre  of  common  life,  where  their  faith  must  manifest  . 
itself  by  its  fruits,  in  the  midst  of  activity  and  trials.  Mar- 
garet gave  utterance  to  her  feelings,  in  thanksgivino-  to 
heaven,  for  the  precious  light  which  had  risen  upon  her,  and 
upon  the  world  around  her,  by  the  ministry  of  the  reformers, 
and  opened  her  grateful  mind  to  Zwingle,  in  a  letter,  which 
she  addressed  to  him  from  her  cell.  "  Grace  and  peace,  in 
the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  be  given  and  multiplied  unto  you 
always,  by  God  our  heavenly  Father,"  said  the  nun  of 
Konigsfeld  to  Zwingle.  "  Very  learned,  reverend,  and  most 
dear  sir,  I  pray  you  to  take  in  good  part  this  letter  which  I 
now  address  to  you.  The  love  of  Christ  constrains  me ; — 
especially  since  I  have  learned  that  the  doctrines  of  grace  are 
spreading  from  day  to  day  through  your  preaching  of  the  word 
of  God.  For  this  cause  I  give  thanks  to  the  eternal  God,  for 
that  he  has  enlightened  us  anew,  and  has  sent  us,  by  his  Holy 
Spirit,  so  many  heralds  of  his  blessed  word ;  and,  at  the  same 
time,  I  present  before  him  my  earnest  prayers,  that  he  will 
be  pleased  to  clothe  with  his  strength  both  you  and  all  those 
who  publish  his  glad  tidings, — and  that,  arming  you  against 
all  enemies  of  the  truth,  he  will  cause  his  divine  word  to  grow 
in  all  men.  Most  learned  sir,  I  take  the  liberty  of  sending 
to  your  reverence  this  little  mark  of  my  affection;*  I  pray  you, 
do  not  despise  it,  for  it  is  an  offering  of  Christian  love.  If 
this  electuary  should  be  useful  to  you,  and  you  should  wish  to 
have  more,  pray  let  ma  know,  for  it  would  be  a  joy  to  my 
heart  to  do  any  thing  that  would  be  agreeable  to  you.  I  am 
writing,  not  my  own  feelings  only,  but  those  of  all  in  our 
convent  of  Konigsfeld  who  love  the  gospel.  They  salute 
you  in  Jesus  Christ,  and  we,  together,  cease  not  to  commend 

*  An  ekctuary  which  she  was  in  the  practice  of  making, 
2u2 


390  HISTORY   OF   THE 

you  to  his  almighty  protection.      Saturday  hefore  Laetare, 
1523."* 

These  pious  nuns,  -whose  spirit  pervaded  the  sisterhood, 
petitioned  the  government  to  grant  them  a  dismission  from 
the  convent.  The  government  were  alarmed  at  this  innova- 
tion, and  called  the  provincial  of  the  order  from  Strasburg,  to 
visit  the  monastery  and  reclaim  the  sisters  from  their  errors. 
The  provincial  came,  but  the  sisters  refused  submission  to  his 
authority.  In  conjunction  with  the  abbess,  he  applied  to  the 
government  for  direction  and  support.  A  deputation  was  sent, 
who  released  the  nuns  from  some  of  the  more  burdensome 
duties  of  the  convent ;  the  sisters  were  required  to  return  to 
their  obedience,  the  convent  was  closed,  and  a  guardian  and 
a  steward  were  appointed  to  watch  over  them.  The  abbess 
was  content ;  but  the  sisters  regarded  the  concessions  which 
were  made  as  a  relief  of  the  flesh  only,  and  not  of  the  spirit; 
they  asked  for  a  dismission  from  their  order  ;  this  they  con- 
sidered as  possible  as  the  previous  concessions ;  they  denied 
the  right  of  the  pope  or  the  provincial  to  forbid  it ;  they  were 
the  subjects  only,  they  said,  of  the  city  of  Berii,  whose  poor, 
unoffending  prisoners  they  were ;  and  they  desired,  for  God's 
sake,  and  for  the  sake  of  their  souls'  salvation,  to  be  released. 
A  last  effort  was  made,  on  the  20th  of  December,  to  dissuade 
them,  by  urging  the  obligation  of  their  vow,  the  authority  of 
immemorial  usage,  and  the  will  of  the  founders  of  the  institu- 
tion :  and,  when  this,  also,  proved  ineffectual,  permission  was 
at  length  reluctantly  given  them  to  quit  their  convent  .and 
their  order.  The  bishop  of  Constance,  whose  sister  was  among 
them,  Caspar  von  Mlillenen,  the  schultheiss  Erlach,  and  even 
,  the  schultheiss  Von  Wattenweil,  resisted  still ;  but  all  opposi- 
tion was  borne  down  by  an  irresistible  current  of  opinion  and 
feeling :  the  abbess  herself  was  carried  along  with  the  tide, 
and  married  an  equestrian  of  Zurich,  George  Gbldlin,  the 
same  who  afterwards  commanded  the  advanced  guard  of  that 
city,  in  the  fatal  battle  of  Cappel ;  and  even  the  guardian  of 

*  D'Aubigne's  Hist.  Ref.  vol.  iii.  p.  281. 


GERMAN   REFORMED   CnURCU.  391 

the  convent,  Sinner,  took  one  of  the  sisters,  Agnes  von  Miil- 
lenen,  and  made  her  his  wife.* 

In  the  mean  time,  the  external  forms  of  Romanism  were 
<Tivincr  way.  Priests  were  entering  into  the  bonds  of  wedlock, 
the  legal  fasts  of  the  church  began  to  be  neglected,  the  holy 
■virgin  and  the  saints  were  denied  their  customary  honors,  and 
other  infractions  of  the  laws  and  usages  of  the  church,  un- 
known before,  were  committed.  It  was  not  perceived  that 
these  outward  changes  were  but  the  indications  of  an  internal 
change,  which  the  free  preaching  of  the  gospel  was  producing 
in  the  heart,  and  that,  to  prevent  them,  it  was  necessary  to 
put  an  end  to  that  preaching.  They  were  ascribed  to  other 
causes ;  and,  while  the  reformers  w^ere  left  to  sap  the  founda- 
tions of  the  edifice  unmolested,  the  government  hastened  to 
prevent  its  fall  by  applying  props  to  its  sides,  in  a  new  man- 
date, which  they  issued  near  the  close  of  April,  1524.  By 
this  act,  they  confirmed  the  mandate  of  June  15th,  1523,  and 
added,  "  that  the  priests  who  had  taken  wives,  or  should  do 
so  in  future,  should  be  deprived  of  their  benefices.  Those, 
also,  who  reviled  the  mother  of  God  and  the  saints,  and  those 
who  ate  flesh,  or  other  interdicted  food,  during  Lent,  or  who 
did  other  such  unheard  of  things,  should  expect  the  vengeance 
of  government. "t 

But  it  was  impossible  to  reconcile  such  a  decree  Avith  the 
moral  sentiment  of  a  community  now  somewhat  enlightened 
by  the  publication  of  the  gospel,  while  most  of  the  priests  lived 
openly  in  a  state  of  concubinage,  and  were,  notwithstanding, 
permitted  to  retain  their  livings,  and  to  perform  all  the  minis- 
trations of  their  sacred  office.  The  government  evidently 
felt  ashamed  of  having  passed  over  this  disgusting  abomina- 
tion in  their  mandate,  and,  a  month  later,  they  issued  another, 
dated  "  On  Tuesday  after  Exaudi,  1524,"  by  which  they 
ordered  all  the  priests,  who  were  guilty  of  this  abuse,  to  put 
away  their  paramours,  within  a  fortnight,  from  their  houses 
and  from  their  parishes,  and  neither  to  cohabit  with  them 


*  Hottinger,  p.  143.  f  Fueslin,  vol.  ii.  p.  271. 


392  HISTORY   OF   THE 

elsewhere,  nor  to  receive  others  in  their  stead ;  and  the  priests 
were  told,  oddly  enough,  that  if  they  disobeyed  this  order,  and 
continued  in  their  illicit  amours,  they  should  be  dealt  with  no 
better  than  married  priests.*  According  to  Campegius,  the 
pope's  nuncio  in  Germany,!  and  of  the  bishop's,^  a  priest 
sinned  more  by  marrying  a  wife  than  by  having  loose  women 
in  keeping :  and  this  seems,  also,  to  have  been  the  judgment 
of  these  priests,  and  of  the  authors  of  this  decree. 

The  care  which  the  government  had  taken  to  preserve  the 
existing  forms  of  religion,  amidst  the  religious  excitement  in 
their  city,  proved  wholly  inefficient.  Their  first  mandate  was 
very  differently  interpreted  by  the  contending  parties.  The 
reformers  took  it  as  a  warrant  to  preach  the  doctrines  of  the 
Bible  as  they  understood  them,  agreeably  to  the  obvious 
grammatical  sense  of  the  words ;  while  the  Papists  regarded 
it  as  a  command  to  preach  the  doctrines  of  the  Bible  as  the 
church  understood  them,  agreeably  to  her  traditions  and  her 
divines.  A  vehement  contention  arose,  that  grew  in  warmth 
by  contradiction  on  both  sides ;  and,  in  addition  to  the  former 
discontent,  new  voices  were  heard  against  other  abuses,  among 
which  were  the  convents  and  the  idolatrous  images,  that,  in 
the  estimation  of  the  Papists,  were  holy  things.  The  heat  of 
controversy  was  still  farther  exasperated  by  a  recantation  of 
his  former  popish  errors  by  Sebastian  Meyer,  which  was  pub- 
lished at  Strashurg,  in  September,  and  in  which  the  convents 
and  the  monastic  life  were  severely  chastised.  To  strengthen 
the  Papist  party,  John  Heim,  a  Dominican,  was  called  from 
Mentz  and  appointed  preacher  of  the  convent  of  his  order. 
The  ancient  feud  between  the  two  orders  of  St.  Francis  and 
St.  Dominic  added  new  fuel  to  the  flames  when  Meyer  and 
Heim  became  antagonists  in  this  strife,  and  the  contention 
raged  with  greater  violence  than  ever.  The  government, 
apprehending  disturbances  of  the  public  peace^  called  the  two 
preachers  before  them,  in  the  latter  part  of  October,  and 


^  Fueslin,  vol.  ii.  p.  272.  •)-  Hottinger,  p.  145. 

%  Seckendorf,  sec.  cxxv.  col.  494. 


GERMAN   REFORMED    CHURCH.  393 

banished  them  both  from  the  city.  Haller  now  stood  alone, 
but  his  ministry  prospered  more  and  more.  A  plot  was  formed 
to,carry  him  oflf  by  clandestine  violence,  but  he  received  infor- 
mation of  it,  and  it  failed.* 

On  the  25th  of  November,  a  new  mandate  was  issued, 
couched,  like  all  the  rest,  in  the  form  of  a  circular  addressed 
to  the  magistrates  of  the  districts.  In  this  edict  they  say : 
"  Although  wc  have  lately  sent  you  a  public  mandate,  and 
have  therein  explained  how  the  holy  gospel  shall  be  preached, 
it  appears  to  us,  nevertheless,  that  it  is  not  observed,  nor 
understood  by  all  in  the  same  sense ;  for  we  hear  that  the 
preachers  contradict  one  another  in  the  pulpits,  and  thence 
move  the  laity  to  adhere  to  them  in  opposite  parties,  and  to 
use  many  unkind  words  and  judgments.  As  it  is  to  be  feared 
that  insurrections  may  arise,  and  as  it  behooves  us  to  guard 
against  them,  and  to  preserve  tranquillity  and  union  among 
the  people,  we  have  revised  the  previous  mandate,  and  have 
confirmed  it  with  some  amendments  and  additions,  and  are 
resolved  to  abide  therein  unalterably.  We  will,  therefore, 
that  henceforth  the  preachers  and  curators  of  souls,  every- 
where in  our  territory  and  jurisdiction,  preach  and  publish 
the  word  of  God  and  holy  gospel,  and  the  divine  Holy  Scrip- 
tures, and  explain  and  set  forth  the  true  ground  and  meaning 
thereof,  without  introducing  unnecessary  glosses  and  forced 
interpretations,  by  which  the  plain,  pious  Christian  may  be 
led  into  error  and  doubt ;  and  as  we  have  heretofore  deprived 
married  priests  of  their  benefices,  we  let  that  regulation  con- 
tinue still  in  force,  and  will,  further,  that  they  obtain  no  other 
benefice  among  us ;  and  in  like  manner  shall  other  priests, 
who  shall  marry,  be  dealt  with.  It  is,  further,  our  decision, 
that  no  one  shall  reproach,  alter,  break  down,  or  burn  the  ^ 
monasteries  and  their  decorations,  or  in  any  manner  contemn 
them ;  but  all  these  shall  be  left,  as  of  old  times,  in  their 
ancient  state  and  condition :  so  that  if  any  one  shall  speak  or 
act  contrary  hereto,  the  same  shall  be  denounced  to  us,  that 


*  Hottinger,  p.  19i 
50 


394  HISTORY   OF   THE 

he  may  be  punished  according  to  his  demerit.  If,  also,  any 
one  shall  eat  flesh  at  unusual,  interdicted  times,  and  shall 
thereby  contemn  our  former  mandate,  ordinance,  and  autho- 
rity, we  -will  that  he  be  arrested  and  confined,  and  be  not 
again  set  at  liberty  until  he  shall  have  paid  a  fine  of  ten 
pounds,  or  given  security  for  the  same,  or  bound  himself  by 
an  oath  to  leave  the  country.  Further,  we  will  that  no  one 
shall  call  another  heretic  or  infidel,  or  compel  him  to  believe 
otherwise  than  he  may  choose.  If  any  one  think  that  another 
does  or  believes  what  is  unchristian,  such  case  shall  first  be 
brought  before  us,  and  no  contention  or  wrangling  shall  be 
raised  about  it,  but  our  decision  shall  be  waited  for,  and  shall 
be  afterwards  respected.  Inasmuch,  also,  as  much  error  and 
misunderstanding  has  arisen  from  printed  books  that  are 
differeiltly  understood,  it  is  our  judgment  that  books  which 
are  contrary  to  the  Holy  Scriptures  be  suppressed,  and  if  they 
be  henceforth  brought  into  our  country  and  dominion,  the 
dealer  in  them  shall  be  amerced  in  a  fine  of  ten  pounds,  and 
the  books  shall  be  burnt.  As  to  books  that  are  based  upon 
the  Old  and  New  Testaments,  the  Gospels,  the  Bible,  and  the 
history  and  doctrine  of  the  twelve  apostles,  we  can  well 
endure  that  the  clergy  and  laity  procure  and  use  them  for  the 
salvation  of  the  soul."* 

The  rest  of  this  decree  relates  to  some  popish  abuses,  which 
they  declare  their  intention  to  reform,  in  conjunction  with 
their  confederates,  and  to  disturbances  upon  their  border, 
on  account  of  the  evangelical  doctrine,  respecting  which  they 
enjoin  neutrality  upon  their  people.  The  whole  mandate  is  a 
singular  mixture  of  light  and  darkness,  and  justifies  the  re- 
mark that  "  Bern  was  neither  turbid  nor  clear."  In  obedience 
to  its  authority,  several  married  canons  were  ejected  from 
their  livings ;  the  abbot  of  Trub  resigned  his  dignity  and  his 
revenues,  married,  and  supported  himself  by  manual  labor, 
until,  after  the  triumph  of  the  gospel,  he  obtained  a  pastor- 
ship, f 


*  Fueslin,  vol.  ii.  p.  283.  t  Hottinger,  p.  193. 


GEKMAN   REFORMED   CHURCH.  395 

But  this  unalterable  mandate  was,  nevertheless,  altered 
within  so  brief  a  period  as  less  than  five  months.  On  the  6th 
of  April,  1525,  a  new  mandate  appeared,  by  which  the  article 
against  married  priests  was  rescinded.  It  embraced  the  plan 
of  a  reformation  agreed  upon  by  a  diet  of  nine  cantons,  assem- 
bled at  Luzern^  in  the  preceding  year,  with,  however,  con- 
siderable alterations,  of  which  the  article  relating  to  married 
priests  was  one.  It  forbade  all  changes  in  the  ceremonies  of 
the  church,  but  would  not  compel  any  person  to  fast  twice 
during  Lent,  to  make  ofi'erings,  or  to  perform  pilgrimages;  it 
corrected  those  abuses  among  the  clergy  which  the  love  of 
lucre  had  introduced ;  it  gave  to  the  councils  a  primary  juris- 
diction in  all  cases  that  were  brought  before  the  spiritual 
courts,  required  the  use  of  the  German  language  in  those 
courts,  and  abolished  the  sale  of  indulgences ;  it  provided 
against  the  admission  of  Roman  courtiers  into  benefices,  which 
were  given  them  by  popes  or  cardinals  as  rewards  for  their 
subserviency,  and  against  abuses  committed  by  the  clergy 
in  the  confessional ;  it  subjected  clerics  who  were  guilty  of 
crimes  to  trial  and  punishment  by  the  civil  courts,  inasmuch 
as  the  spiritual  courts  usually  sufi'ered  them  to  escape  with 
impunity ;  it  gave  permission  to  all  persons  to  read  the  Bible 
and  books  that  were  in  harmony  with  it,  &c.* 

Nothing  is  more  evident  than  the  sincere  attachment  of 
these  rulers  to  the  ceremonies  and  usages  of  the  church,  while 
they  were  deeply  sensible  of  the  corruptions  that  prevailed 
among  the  clergy,  and  the  abuses  they  had  introduced. 
Amidst  all  their  errors,  their  intentions  were  upright,  and 
there  was  one  principle  in  their  faith  which,  in  honest  minds, 
was  an  earnest  of  the  ultimate  triumph  of  the  truth  :  the 
principle,  that  the  Bible  alone  is  the  standard  of  faith  and 
practice.  Their  ignorance  of  the  sacred  volume,  the  preju- 
dices of  education,  and  the  important  earthly  interests  they 
seemed  to  have  at  stake,  held  them  in  bondage,  and  prevented 
them  from  seeing  the  inconsistency  of  the  reigning  religion 


*  Hottinger,  p.  238. 


396  HISTORY   OF   THE 

with  the  teaching  of  the  Bible,  until  it  was,  in  a  manner, 
forced  upon  them  bj  circumstances  and  events.  The  people 
were  in  advance  of  their  rulers,  and  public  sentiment  bore 
down  one  hallowed  error  and  one  consecrated  abuse  after  the 
other,  and  thus  compelled  the  rulers  to  open  their  eyes  upon 
it,  and  to  abandon  it ;  which  they  did  with  evident  reluctance. 
Toward  the  close  of  the  year  1525,  Nicolas  von  Watten- 
weil,  the  provost  of  the  cathedral,  resigned  his  high  dignity, 
and  married  Clara,  the  daughter  of  Claudius  Mey,  the  beau- 
tiful nun  of  St.  Michaels,  and  by  this  act  relinquished  all  the 
expectations  which  the  pope's  distinguished  favor  and  his 
exalted  station  had  authorized  him  to  entertain.*  This  act 
necessarily  created  a  great  sensation ;  and  the  manifest  self- 
denial  and  conscientiousness  that  characterized  it,  could  not 
fail  to  add  weight  and  dignity  to  the  cause  of  the  Reformation, 
while  it  gave  a  fatal  wound  to  the  claims  of  the  papacy.  It 
was  itself  an  effect  of  the  public  sentiment  which  had  already 
induced  the  council  to  rescind  their  penal  enactment  against 
the  marriage  of  clerics ;  but  it  served,  in  its  turn,  to  confirm 
that  sentiment,  and  to  give  it  increased  popularity. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

ORIGIN  AND  PROGRESS  OF   THE  REFORMATION  IN   STRASBURG. 

A  FOURTH  central  point,  from  which  the  light  of  the  Swiss 
reformation  was  diffused,  was  the  imperial  city  of  Strashurg  ; 
which,  like  Basel,  Constance,  and  Bern,  received  its  own  illu- 
mination both  from  Wittenberg  and  from  Zurich. 

This  ancient  city  is  situated  at  the  junction  of  the  Brusche 
and  the  Ille,  about  half  a  mile  from  the  Rhine.  It  is  noAV  the 
capital  of  the  department  of  Loiver-Rliine,  which,  with  the 

*  Hottinger,  p.  260. 


GERMAN   REFORMED   CHURCH.  397 

department  of  Upper-Rhine,  were  formed  out  of  the  former 
province  of  Alsace,  or  JElsass. 

Alsaee  was  anciently  a  German  dutchy ;  but  the  line  of  its 
dukes  becoming  extinct,  it  was  parcelled  out,  in  1268,  to 
several  members  of  the  Germanic  body.  By  the  peace  of 
Munster,  called  also  the  peace  of  Westphalia,  in  1648,  the 
part  of  Alsace  which  belonged  to  Austria  and  to  ten  cities  of 
the  empire,  was  ceded  to  France.  Lewis  XIV.,  wishing  to 
make  the  Rhine  the  boundary  of  his  dominions,  afterwards 
perfidiously  took  forcible  possession  of  Strashurg,  and  other 
parts  of  Alsace  ;  and  these  Avere  confii-med  to  the  French  by 
the  treaty  of  Ryswich,  in  1697.  Several  states  of  the  empire 
still  had  important  possessions  in  this  territory,  which,  at  the 
beginning  of  the  French  Revolution,  the  National  Assembly 
declared  to  be  a  conquest  pointed  out  by  nature  itself;  because 
foreign  powers  could  not  be  allowed  to  hold  possessions  within 
the  territory  of  France,  without  danger.  The  inhabitants  of 
Alsace  still  speak  the  German  language. 

The  light  of  the  Reformation  began  to  dawn  upon  Stras- 
hurg in  1521,  by  the  ministry  of  Matthew  Zell,  or  Zellius,  pas- 
tor and  preacher  of  the  cathedral  or  minster,  by  whose  labors 
two  other  priests,  Anthony  Firnius,  preacher  at  the  church  of 
St.  Thomas,  and  the  aged  Symphorianus,  preacher  at  the 
church  of  St.  Martin,  were  brought  over  to  the  knowledge  of 
the  truth.  In  1523,  he  was  cited  by  the  bishop's  fiscal  to  give 
an  account  of  his  doctrine.  The  council  did  not  at  this  time 
protect  him,  but,  being  supported  by  many  of  the  citizens,  who 
were  favorably  impressed  by  his  instructions,  he  disengaged 
himself,  happily,  from  this  prosecution.  Presently  after  this 
occurrence,  he  published  a  vindication,  under  the  title,  "  Chris- 
tian Apology  of  Matthew  Zcll,  pastor  and  preacher  of  the 
Minster  in  Strashurg,  concerning  the  Articles  charged  against 
him  by  the  episcopal  Fiscal.  Herein  you  will  find  a  solid 
exposition  and  copious  information  of  evangelical  doctrine  by 
the  Holy  Scripture,  very  nearly  of  all  matters  that  are  now 
in  dispute."  Zellius  was  a  learned,  pious,  and  amiable  man, 
indefatigable  in  the  duties  of  his  ministry,  of  unbounded  hos- 
21 


398  HISTORY   OF   THE 

pitality  and  kindness  toward  the  followers  of  the  Lord  Jesus, 
of  every  name.  Intent  upon  the  great  doctrines  of  salvation, 
he  made  no  account  of  religious  diversities  on  minor  points, 
and  embraced  with  equal  affection  the  adherents  of  Luther, 
of  Zwingle,  of  Schwenkfeld,  and  even  the  hated  and  perse- 
cuted Anabaptists  who  gave  evidence  of  sincere  piety,  while 
for  himself  he  held  the  opinions  of  the  Swiss  reformer.  In 
1538,  he  visited  Luther  at  Wittenberg,  and  many  of  the 
eminent  Protestant  divines  of  Qermany  and  Sivitzerland,  by 
all  of  whom  he  was  kindly  and  honorably  entertained.  He 
died  among  his  flock,  in  Strashurg,  in  1548,  after  a  ministry 
of  thirty  years,  in  the  71st  year  of  his  age,  leaving  behind 
him  an  odor  of  righteousness  and  of  love,  that  endeared  his 
name  and  his  memory  to  all  who  knew  how  to  appreciate  ex- 
alted worth.  Melchior  Adam,  in  his  Vitce  Tlieologorum, 
pronounces  the  following  eulogy  upon  this  excellent  minister 
of  Christ :  "  He  was  a  man  distinguished  not  only  by  his 
learning,  but  by  his  Christian  virtues  also,  and  especially  by 
his  modesty,  temperance,  and  charity ;  of  a  mild  disposition, 
of  an  innocent  life,  in  doctrine  pure,  and  remote  from  all 
pride."* 

Martin  Bucer  came  to  Strashurg  in  1523.  His  family 
name  was  Kuhhorn,  that  is,  Cowhorn,  which,  agreeably  to 
the  custom  of  the  times,  he  translated  into  Greek,  and  con- 
tracted into  Bucer.  He  was  a  native  of  Schletstad,  in  Alsace, 
where  he  was  born  in  1491.  In  his  fifteenth  year,  he  entered 
a  Dominican  convent.  Having  read  the  writings  of  Luther, 
and  heard  the  great  reformer  himself,  in  his  public  disputation 
at  the  general  convention  of  the  Augustinians,  in  Heidelberg, 
on  the  26th  of  April,  1518,  he  became  a  convert  to  his  doc- 
trine. In  the  same  auditory  were  John  Brentz,  Ehrhard 
Schnepf,  and  Theobald  Billicanus,  all  of  whom  afterward  rose 
to  eminence  in  the  German  reformation.  After  the  discussions, 
these  men  sought,  in  private  conferences  with  Luther,  elucida- 


*  Fueslin,  vol.  v.,  Vorrede,  p.  25-37,  and  **Briefwechsel  der  Frau  Catlia- 
rina  Zellin,"  &c.     Ibid.  p.  191,  &c. 


GERMAN    REFORMED    CHURCH.  399 

tions  of  such  things  as  they  had  not  fully  understood.  Bucer, 
especially,  put  many  questions  to  the  reformer,  and  committed 
his  answers  to  writing.  What  they  had  learned  they  discussed 
at  first  in  private  colloquies,  but  soon  afterwards  taught  with- 
out reserve  in  public*  Hence  arose  a  persecution,  the  com- 
mon lot  of  all  reformers,  which  rendered  Bucer's  situation  in 
the  convent  not  only  irksome,  but  dangerous,  and,  in  conse- 
quence of  which,  he  fled  and  abandoned  his  order.  Ilis 
talents  and  the  recommendation  of  Francis  von  Sickingen, 
procured  him  the  situation  of  court  preacher  to  the  elector  of 
the  Palatinate  ;  but,  finding  his  doctrine  unacceptable  at  this 
court,  he  withdrew,  and  betook  himself  to  the  friendly  asylum 
afforded  by  Sickingen  in  his  castle  of  Ehernhurg.  After  the 
overthrow  of  his  kind  protector,  he  came  to  Strasburg,  in 
1523,  and  joined  his  labors  and  influence  with  those  of  the 
worthy  Zellius,  whose  hospitality  he  enjoyed.  Here,  according 
to  Hettinger,  he  expounded  the  New  Testament  to  the  citizens, 
and,  when  this  was  forbidden,  explained  to  studious  youth  the 
epistles  of  Paul  to  Timothy.  Being  a  married  man,  he  was 
prevented  by  the  bishop's  vicar  from  exercising  the  oflice  of 
a  preacher.  On  this  account,  he  sought  a  situation  else- 
where, and  applied  to  2iwingle  for  direction.  Oecolampadius 
made  the  same  request  in  his  behalf.  He  continued,  how- 
ever, in  Strasburg,  and  found  occupation  that  made  this  city 
his  appropriate  field  during  many  years.f  In  1549,  when 
the  emperor  imposed  upon  Strasburg  the  celebrated  Interim, 
Bucer  left  this  city,  and,  in  pursuance  of  an  invitation  from 
Cranmer,  went,  with  his  friend  Paul  Fagius,  to  England, 
where  he  was  appointed  professor  of  theology.  He  died,  two 
years  afterward,  of  a  disease  contracted  from  the  climate  and 
mode  of  living,  or,  according  to  some,  by  poison.  His  prin- 
cipal works  were  a  commentary  on  the  Psalms,  and  a  treatise 
on  the  kingdom  of  Christ;  the  latter  written,  in  1549,  for 
Edward  VI.  of  England.X 

*  Seckendorf,  b.  i.  sec.  xxiv.  col.  88.  f  Ilottinger,  p.  144. 

%  Fuhrman's  Lexicon,  &c.,  art.  Bucer. 


400  HISTORY   OF   THE 

Bucerwas  followed,  in  the  same  year,  by  W.  F.  Capito  and 
C.  Hedio  from  Mentz,  Avhere  the  former  had  been  court 
preacher  to  the  elector,  and  the  latter,  pastor  of  the  cathedral. 
Disappointed  in  the  hope  of  converting  the  elector,  they  relin- 
quished their  places,  and  came  to  Strashurg.  Capito  was 
appointed  pastor  of  the  church  of  St.  Thomas,  and  provost  of 
the  Thomas  foundation ;  Iledio  became  an  assistant  in  the 
minster.  All  these  held  the  opinion  of  Zwingle  and  Oecolam- 
padius  on  the  Lord's  supper ;  and  all  entertained  the  same 
enlarged  view  of  Christianity  as  the  excellent  Zellius,  with 
whom  they  appear  to  have  been  of  "  one  heart  and  one  soul."* 
Seckendorf  makes  mention  of  Capito,  Hedio,  Bucer,  Zellius, 
and  Pollio,  as  evangelical  divines  in  this  city,  in  1524.  f  Who 
this  Pollio  was,  we  are  not  informed. 

The  church  laws  began  to  give  way,  in  1523,  by  the  mar- 
riage of  a  priest,  Antonius  Eirnius,  one  of  the  preachers  of 
the  church  of  St.  Thomas.  He  married  his  mistress,  a  young 
woman  who  had  lived  with  him  ostensibly  as  a  housekeeper, 
and  announced  his  marriage  to  the  people  from  his  pulpit.  A 
sermon  was  subsequently  preached  by  Zellius  in  commendation 
of  matrimony.  The  bride  was  introduced  with  solemn  pomp 
by  two  of  the  most  respectable  matrons,  and  a  multitude  of 
all  descriptions  ran  together  to  witness  the  novel  and  unheard- 
of  spectacle  in  Strashurg,  a  wedded  priest  and  his  bride ! 
"  The  Papists  raved,"  says  Gerbelius,  "  Christians  exulted. 
One  cried  from  the  midst  of  the  crowd,  He  has  done  right  I 
God  grant  him  a  thousand  happy  years  !"| 

Zellius  himself,  being  then  forty-six  years  of  age,  soon 
followed  in  the  j)ath  of  his  proselyte.  He  married  Catharine, 
the  daughter  of  worthy  parents,  whose  names  are  not  men- 
tioned. She  was  a  woman  of  no  ordinary  character.  Her 
pious  parents  had  given  her  a  virtuous  and  liberal  education. 
She  possessed  handsome  talents  and  a  noble  disposition  of 


*  Letters  of  Madame  Zellius,  in  Fueslin,  vol.  v.  p.  191,  &c. 
•j-  Seckendorf,  b.  i.  sec.  clxii.  col.  659. 
I  Fuesliu,  vol.  v.  Vorrede,  p.  30. 


GERMAN    REFORMED    CHURCH.  401 

heart,  conversed  with  many  learned  men,  -who  honored  her 
"with  respectful  attentions,  was  familiar  with  their  writinfi^s, 
read  the  fathers  of  the  ancient  church,  abounded  in  hospitality, 
and  never  grew  Aveary  of  well-doing.  To  her  husband,  she 
was  a  most  useful  and  important  helpmate,  aiding  him  in  all 
the  duties  of  his  ministry,  except  the  proper  office  of  the 
preacher.  Both  were  of  one  mind.  The  necessities  of  the 
times  required  a  large  expenditure  for  the  relief  of  the  dis- 
tressed. Many  exiles,  banished  from  their  homes,  many  fugi- 
tives from  religious  oppression,  seeking  safety  abroad,  came 
to  Strashurg,  and  found  a  refuge  in  the  house  of  Zellius. 
There  they  were  kindly  entertained,  their  wants  were  relieved, 
their  sorrows  mitigated,  and  their  darkness  removed  ;  and  in 
all  this  labor  of  love,  Catharine  bore  a  conspicuous  part.  In 
a  doleful  night,  of  the  year  1524,  one  hundred  and  fifty  citizens 
of  the  town  of  Kenzingen,  in  Breisgau,  were  compelled  to  flee 
and  abandon  their  all.  They  came  to  Strasburg  in  a  state  of 
destitution.  Catharine  received  them  like  an  angel  of  mercy, 
conducted  eighty  of  the  number  to  the  hospitable  mansion  of 
her  husband,  and  provided  for  the  rest  elsewhere  among  the 
pious  parishioners.  She  was  the  soul  of  a  benevolent  circle, 
who  were  assiduous  in  their  attentions  to  the  sufferers,  show- 
ing forth  the  tender  sympathies  of  the  Christian,  and  imitating 
the  mercy  of  him  who  bindeth  up  the  broken  heart.  During 
four  weeks,  this  excellent  lady  and  her  heavenly-minded  part- 
ner never  had  less  than  fifty  of  these  strangers  at  their  table ; 
and  the  cheerful  cordiality  of  their  entertainment,  and  their 
consolatory  conversation,  sweetened  the  relief  they  afforded, 
and  caused  their  afflicted  quests  to  forget  their  sorrows,  and 
to  look  with  strengthened  confidence  to  heaven  for  a  better 
and  a  more  enduring  substance.* 

Twenty-five  years  did  this  holy  pair  live  in  their  matrimo- 
nial union,  and  their  united  efforts  of  doing  good ;  but  these 
were  to  them,  also,  years  of  affliction  and  trial :  and  when 
they  were  ended,  and  Zellius  slept  in  peace,  the  good  Catharine 


*  Letters  of  Madame  Zellius,  in  Fueslin,  vol.  v.  p.  303. 
:i2  51 


402  HISTORY   OF   THE 

and  her  orphan  boy  were  left  in  poverty  and  dependence. 
Though  many  contributions  had  been  received  to  aid  them  in 
their  generous  charity,  their  own  means,  also,  were  consumed ; 
and,  at  the  close  of  a  ministry  of  thirty  years,  as  the  pastor 
of  the  cathedral,  Zellius  died  poor.  His  successor  was  Lewis 
Rabus,  a  rigid  Lutheran,  and  an  intolerant  bigot,  who  pos- 
sessed nothing  of  the  spirit  of  his  predecessor,  and  entered 
into  none  of  his  feelings.  Catharine  admonished  him,  and 
was  insulted :  and  his  fierce  denunciations  of  Zwingle,  Oeco- 
lampadius,  and  Schwenkfeld,  who  were  dear  to  her  heart, 
furnished  the  occasion  for  the  letters  to  him,  and  to  the  city 
of  Strasburg,  which  Fueslin  has  preserved.  They  were  written 
in  1556  and  1557,  when  she  had  attained  her  sixtieth  year. 
The  time  of  her  death  is  unknown. 

The  bars  were  now  broken,  the  doors  were  open,  and  the 
path  prepared.  Other  priests  followed  the  example  of  their 
brethren,  and,  before  the  close  of  the  year,  as  many  as  seven 
had  set  at  nought  the  law  of  the  church,  and  entered  into  the 
bonds  of  matrimonial  life.  Their  former  excesses  had  given 
the  bishop  no  uneasiness,  but  the  violation  of  the  church-laws 
now  waked  up  his  indignation.  He  cited  the  married  priests 
to  appear  before  him,  and  to  answer  for  their  conduct.  The 
day  appointed  for  the  trial  was  the  20th  of  January,  1524. 
In  the  mean  time,  Capito,  with  the  concurrence  of  his  parish- 
ioners, wrote  and  published  a  "  Supplication  of  the  Parish  of 
St.  Thomas  to  the  Council  of  Strasburg,  in  behalf  of  holy 
Matrimony,  and  against  the  libidinous  Priests,"  which  was 
read  before  the  council  and  the  chapter  of  St.  Thomas,  on  the 
12th  of  December,  1523.  The  council  took  the  priests  under 
their  protection,  and  thus  arrested  the  prosecution.  The 
bishop  complained  of  this  invasion  of  his  authority  to  Campe- 
gius,  the  pope's  nuncio  at  Nuremberg,  and  solicited  his  inter- 
position, and  the  council,  also,  sent  a  delegate  to  represent 
them  and  to  vindicate  their  act.  The  nuncio  requested  that 
the  married  priests  be  surrendered  to  the  bishop,  to  be  dealt 
with  according  to  their  demerit.  The  delegate  answered,  that 
a  compliance  with  his  request  was  impracticable,  and  the 


GERMAN    llEFORMED    CHURCH.  403 

attempt  would  provoke  an  insiirrection  of  the  people,  unless 
those  priests  who  lived  in  open  concubinage  were  first  punished ; 
to  which  the  representative  of  the  holy  father  replied,  that 
priests  who  married  sinned  much  more  grievously  than  those 
who  kept  many  harlots  !  It  was  customary  with  the  bishops, 
for  a  consideration  in  money,  to  grant  dispensations  to  their 
clergy  to  indulge  in  these  loose  and  beastly  amours ;  and  the 
bishop  of  Strashurg  had  granted  the  same  license  to  his  own 
ungodly  clerics.  Campegius  disapproved  this  practice,  indeed, 
but  he  was  not  ashamed  to  say,  and  to  say  as  the  representative 
of  the  so-called  vicegerent  of  the  Son  of  God,  that  keeping  har- 
lots was  better  than  matrimonial  life  !*  Such  were  the  spiritual 
guides  of  the  people  in  their  inquiries  after  the  way  of  life,  in 
those  wretched  times  !  And  such  they  would  be  still,  if  light 
had  not  arisen,  by  the  great  Reformation,  to  refine  public 
sentiment,  and  to  overwhelm  this  profligacy  with  scorn  and 
execration. 

The  plain  and  warm-hearted  preaching  of  the  gospel  won 
over  the  people  to  the  cause  of  the  pious  preachers.  It  was 
with  them,  and  not  with  the  rulers,  that  the  Reformation 
began ;  and,  as  the  people  moved,  they  bore  the  rulers  with 
them.  The  great  principle,  That  no  authority  hut  that  of  God 
can  hind  the  conscience,  and  that  no  other  rule  than  his  own 
word  can  he  the  standard  of  faith  and  of  life,  commended 
itself  to  the  reason  of  every  man  who  was  open  to  conviction, 
and  contained  the  secret  power  before  which  the  hierarchy 
and  its  corruptions  fell.  It  was  felt  to  be  in  unison  with  the 
moral  sense,  with  the  sense  of  dependence  from  the  Deity  and 
of  obligation  to  do  his  will ;  and,  taking  hold  of  this  religious 
principle  in  man,  it  moved  him  into  his  proper  place ;  and  it 
would  have  moved,  in  the  same  manner,  the  whole  religious 
world,  had  not  the  reformers  obscured  and  weakened  it  by 
their  divisions;  had  they  not  differed  about  unimportant 
matters,  and,  under  the  influence  of  their  passions,  mistaken 
them  for  fundamentals.    In  obedience  to  the  will  of  the  people, 

*  Seckenclorf,  sec  cl.  col.  620.  f  Hot  linger,  p.  145. 


404  HISTORY   OF   THE 

and  the  dictate  of  their  OAvn  conscience,  the  council  published 
a  decree,  on  the  first  day  of  December,  1523,  commanding 
that  nothing  but  the  word  of  God  should  be  preached  by  the 
ministers  of  religion,  and  forbidding,  at  the  same  time,  all 
railing  accusations  of  one  another  on  account  of  any  difference 
of  opinion.  This  was  a  decisive  step  in  the  reformation  of 
Strasburg ;  but  the  government  did  not  stop  here.  They 
opened  a  school  for  the  instruction  of  the  youth  in  letters  and 
useful  knowledge.  This  duty  the  church  had  overlooked ;  or, 
rather,  had  designedly  omitted.  She  esteemed  ignorance  the 
mother  of  devotion  :  knowledge,  she  thought,  would  generate 
heresy,  and  she  hated  nothing  so  much  as  the  light  that  would 
expose  her  impostures  and  jeopard  her  power.  But  the 
reformers  and  their  disciples  thought  otherwise,  and  placed 
everywhere  the  school  beside  the  pulpit.  Nor  did  the  govern* 
ment  stop  here.  They  gave  permission  to  monastics  to  quit 
their  convents  and  their  orders ;  they  secularized  the  monas- 
tei'ies,  and  appropriated  their  revenues  to  other  more  useful 
and  rational  objects ;  and  they  made  provision  during  life  for 
those  of  the  monks  whose  infirmity  or  whose  conscience  dis- 
qualified them  for  occupations  by  which  they  might  earn  their 
own  bread.* 

These  measures  were  attacked  by  the  Papist  leaders.  The 
champions  on  this  side,  were  Conrad  Troger,  the  provincial 
of  the  Augustinian  order,  and  Thomas  Murner,  a  Franciscan 
monk,  and  a  doctor  of  divinity,  whom  we  afterwards  find  at 
Luzern,  in  Sivitzerland.  The  reformers  vindicated  the  mea- 
sures of  the  council,  in  a  publication  entitled,  "  Warning  of 
the  Ministers  of  the  Word  and  the  Brethren  of  Strasburg  to 
the  Brethren  in  the  Towns  and  Countries  of  the  common 
Confederacy."  Its  chief  object  was  to  refute  the  calumnies 
that  were  uttered  by  Troger,  who  had  boasted  that  he  had 
challenged  the  preachers  of  Strasburg  to  a  disputation,  which 
they  had  declined.  Troger,  they  say,  had  published  a  hun- 
dred theses,  which  he  proposed  to  discuss  with  them  in  a 

*  Hottinger,  p.  145.     Seckendorf,  sec.  clxii.  col.  659. 


GERMAN   REFORMED   CHURCH.  405 

public  meeting,  but  when  they  had  communicated  their  ac- 
ceptance of  the  invitation,  he  retreated  behind  the  plea  that 
he  had  not  yet  obtained  his  bishop's  consent ;  and  when  he 
afterwards  pretended  a  readiness  to  meet  them,  he  would 
dispute  only  at  Friburg,  in  Switzerland.  Out  of  his  hundred 
theses,  they  selected  the  one  upon  which  the  whole  controversy 
turned;  the  one,  namely,  that  related  to  the  rule  of  faith. 
The  provincial  denied,  in  this  proposition,  that  the  Bible  was 
alone  the  rule  of  faith,  and  would  have  it  subjected  to  the 
church.  "  The  apostles,"  he  said,  "  were  men,  and  might  err, 
as  the  case  of  Peter  proved;  but  the  church  could  not  err." 
Murner  took  the  same  ground.  In  a  sermon  preached  by 
him,  he  had  the  audacity  to  say,  "  I  should  tell  you  something 
about  the  institution  of  the  sacrament :  you,  however,  believe 
the  gospel ;  but  I  do  not  believe  it,  but  only  what  the  church 
has  received."*  In  their  system,  the  church,  that  is,  the 
hierarchy,  was  guided  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  was,  therefore, 
infallible.  This  was  very  convenient  ground  for  her  defence ; 
if  this  infallibility  were  once  conceded,  her  battle  would  be 
already  fought,  and  her  victory  won ;  for  nothing  would  then 
be  requisite  for  the  defence  of  any  doctrine  of  the  church,  but 
the  mere  fact  that  she  held  it.  The  church  was  not  infallible 
in  her  practice  ;  for  the  lives  of  the  clergy  were,  for  the  most 
part,  exceedingly  reprehensible :  she  was  infallible  only,  it 
seems,  in  her  doctrine :  about  practice,  it  would  seem,  accord- 
ing to  them,  the  Holy  Spirit  did  not  care ! 

Seckendorf  remarks,  "  It  is  not  to  be  concealed  that  some 
of  the  preachers  of  Strasburg  were  not  right  in  their  doctrine 
of  the  Lord's  supper,  although  there  was  yet  no  public  con- 
troversy."f  He  means  that  they  taught  a  spiritual  participa- 
tion of  Christ's  body  and  blood  in  the  holy  supper.  This 
was  the  doctrine  of  Bucer,  Capito,  and  Hedio.  That  Zellius 
taught  the  same,  appears  from  the  defence  of  his  consort 
against  Lewis  Rabus :  "My  dear  husband  taught,  in  the 
Lord's  supper,  we  must  not  seek  Christ  in  the  bread,  (as  the 


*  Seckendorf,  sec.  cliii.  col.  GGO.  t  ^^^^- 


406  GERMAN   REFORMED    CHURCH. 

pope  does  and  teaches,)  but  at  the  right  hand  of  God  the 
Father,  and  in  the  hearts  of  believers,  in  which,  St.  Paul  says, 
God  dwells."*  The  same  opinion,  as  we  have  elsewhere 
observed,  was  entertained  by  many,  especially  in  southern 
Germany,  before  the  controversy  between  Luther  and  Carl- 
stadt  arose. 

The  Christian  charity  of  the  church  in  Strasburg  was  called 
into  full  exercise  by  the  troubles  which  arose,  especially  in 
the  year  1525,  from  the  revolts  of  the  peasantry  in  this  part 
of  Crermany.  The  followers  of  the  evangelical  doctrine  were 
confounded  with  the  rebellious  peasants,  and,  after  the  defeat 
of  the  insurgents,  were  exposed,  as  well  as  the  guilty,  to  the 
vengeance  of  the  angry  and  vindictive  rulers.  Many  of  them 
fled  for  their  lives,  and  sought  refuge  in  Switzerland,  or  in 
the  free  cities,  where  the  gospel  had  been  received ;  and  of 
these  not  a  few  came  to  Strasburg.  Their  sufferings  and 
wants  made  large  demands  upon  the  pious  citizens  and  their 
pastors ;  and,  in  all  these  charities,  every  one,  doubtless,  bore 
his  part.  The  letters  of  Madame  Zellius  speak  only  of  the 
hospitalities  of  her  own  house,  because  her  object  was  only  to 
vindicate  herself  from  the  aspersions  of  her  calumniator  ;  and 
the  part  which  was  borne  by  her  and  her  worthy  consort  may 
be  regarded  as  a  specimen  of  the  nature  of  the  demands  that 
were  made,  and  of  the  charities  in  which  all  the  pious  and 
their  faithful  pastors  were  called  to  participate. 

*  Fueslin,  yoI.  v.  p.  321. 


BOOK  III. 

SECTION  II.— PROGRESS  OF  THE  GOSPEL  IN  SWITZER- 
LAND FROM  ZURICH. 


CHAPTER  I. 

THE  REFORMATION  IN  THE  CITY   AND   CANTON   OF   SCHAFFHAUSEN. 

From  Zurich,  the  doctrine  of  Zwingle  penetrated  into 
Sciiaffliausen.  This  canton  lies  on  the  right  bank  of  the 
Rhine,  and  is  separated  by  that  river  from  the  rest  of  Switzer- 
land. It  is,  next  to  Zug,  the  smallest  of  the  old  cantons  in 
territorial  extent.  Its  population  is  about  30,000.  The 
capital,  Avhich  bears  the  same  name,  is  seated  on  the  Rhine, 
and  owes  its  origin  to  the  interruption  of  the  navigation  of 
that  river  at  the  cataract  of  Lauffen  :  it  contains  about  6000 
inhabitants.     The  government  is  aristocratic. 

The  first  laborers  in  the  reformation  of  this  canton  -were 
two  monks  of  the  order  of  St.  Francis,  Sebastian  Hoffman  and 
Sebastian  Hoifmeister.  Iloffmeister  was  a  native  of  Schaff- 
hausen.  lie  was  some  time  lecturer  or  preacher  to  the  convent 
of  his  order  in  Zurich,  where  he  heard  Zwingle,  and  became 
his  warm  friend  and  admirer.  In  1520,  we  find  him  in  Con- 
stance, whence  he  returned  to  the  place  of  his  nativity.  Hoff- 
man was  born  at  Strashurg,  where  he  Avas  probably  awakened 
under  the  ministry  of  the  good  and  learned  Zellius.  In  1522, 
he  preached  at  Luzern.  Here  his  associates  were  the  two 
canons,  Jos.  Kilchmeyer  and  John  Zimmerman,  (Xylotectus,) 
and  the  rector  of  the  school,  Oswald  Myconius.  In  this  city,  he 
boldly  attacked  the  invocation  of  the  saints ;  he  was  denounced 
to  the  bishop ;  the   bishop  fulminated  the  episcopal  ban,  and 

407 


408  HISTORY    OF   THE 

Hoffman  fled  for  his  safety,  but  subsequently  published  a  writ- 
ten vindication.*  Coming  to  Srhaffhausen,  he  there  met  Hoff- 
meister,  "svho  had  already  acquired  some  notoriety  as  a  preacher 
of  evangelical  doctrine.  Entertaining  the  same  faith,  and  find- 
ing here  an  open  door,  these  two  monks  now  labored  zealously 
in  the  ministry  of  reconciliation.  Hoffman  was  permitted  to 
preach  in  the  cathedral,  and  Hoffmeister  in  the  church  of  St. 
John,  and  in  the  chapels  of  several  convents.  The  latter  in- 
culcated the  four  following  propositions,  viz. :  Christ,  having 
ascended  into  heaven,  is  not  corporeally  present  on  earth ; 
Christ's  body  and  blood  cannot  be  received  corporeally  in  the 
holy  supper;  Christ  is  not  to  be  anywhere  worshipped  as 
corporeally  present ;  Christ's  flesh  and  blood  are  received 
spiritually  by  a  true  faith.  These  propositions  were  aimed 
against  the  Papistic  doctrine  of  the  mass,  against  which  the 
preacher's  efforts  were  directed,  as  that  article  of  the  Romish 
faith  with  which  the  whole  system  of  its  superstition  must 
stand  or  fall.  They  had  no  reference  to  the  Lutheran  con- 
troversy, which  then  had  no  existence ;  and  they  are  another 
instance  of  the  fact,  that  Zwingle's  view  of  the  Lord's  supper 
was  substantially  entertained  by  others  beside  himself,  before 
his  own  public  avowal  of  it.f  The  reformers  exposed,  also, 
the  other  errors  of  the  church :  they  drew  large  auditories, 
and  brought  over  several  of  the  city-preachers  to  their  party. 
Opposition  was  to  be  expected.  Adolphus,  a  physician  of  the 
city,  and  a  disciple  of  Luther,  wrote,  "  The  Scribes  and  Pha- 
risees, Annas  and  Caiaphas,  strive  exceedingly,  by  mandates 
and  apostolic  letters,  to  hinder  the  work." — "He  hoped, 
nevertheless,  that,  by  the  Almighty's  aid,  Christian  truth 
would  prevail."!  Of  the  prospect  of  success,  in  1523,  Hoff- 
meister wrote  to  Zwingle,  "  Christ  was  received  in  Schaff- 
hausen  with  great  avidity.     The  government  had  promised 


*  Ilottinger,  p.  00. 

■j-  Zwiugle  himself  declares  this,  in  his  treatise  De  Vera  et  Falsa  Religione, 
p.  221,  249,  290. 
J  Hottinger^  p,  92. 


GERMAN  REFORMED  CHURCH.  409 

him  protection,  if  he  were  careful  to  teach  sound  doctrine ; 
•which  he  had  hitherto  done."  The  state  of  things  was, 
nevertheless,  far  from  being  perfectly  satisfactory ;  for,  when 
the  government  of  Zurich  sent  a  deputation  to  the  council 
with  a  copy  of  Zwingle's  sixty-seven  theses,  the  deputies  were 
uncivilly  sent  away ;  and  we  are  left  to  infer,  that,  when  the 
council  promised  their  protection  to  Hoflfmeister,  provided 
that  he  taught  sound  doctrine,  he  and  they  did  not  mean  the 
same  thing  by  that  condition.* 

The  heat  of  opposing  parties,  and  the  violence  of  their  dis- 
sensions, were  much  increased  by  calling  in  a  new  champion, 
Erasmus  Ritter,  a  learned  and  eloquent  preacher,  who  was 
called  from  Rothiveil,  in  G-ermany,  to  defend  the  cause  of 
Eomanism.  The  government  were  divided,  the  lesser  council 
took  part  with  Ritter,  the  greater  council  and  most  of  the 
citizens  with  the  reformers,  and  the  contention  became  lament- 
able. To  gain  the  multitude,  Ritter  read  mass  in  German, 
and  overwhelmed  his  antagonists  with  railing  declamation  and 
charges  of  heresy.  Hoffmeistcr,  who  was  charged  with  being 
the  originator  of  these  troubles,  was  induced,  at  length,  to  go 
to  the  university  oi Basel  for  a  confirmation  of  his  doctrine ;  but 
most  of  the  professors  of  this  institution  being  zealous  Papists, 
he  experienced,  what  he  might  have  anticipated,  a  mortifying 
disappointment.  He  thought  of  going,  for  the  same  purpose, 
to  Wittenberg  ;  but  was  dissuaded  by  his  friends,  who,  doubt- 
less, disallowed  the  old  practice  of  referring  religious  doctrines 
to  the  universities  for  a  decision,  believing  that  the  Scriptures 
alone  should  be  consulted  in  such  disputes.  He  then  solicited 
permission  to  discuss  the  controverted  doctrines  in  a  public 
disputation  ;  but  the  permission  was  refused.  As  a  last  resort, 
he  laid  before  the  council  a  defence  of  his  doctrine  in  writino-:  j. 
upon  which  he  was  ordered  to  abstain  from  preaching.  He 
obeyed  this  order,  indeed,  but  improved  every  opportunity,  at 
the  same  time,  to  promote  the  Reformation  by  such  other 
means  as  he  could  still  employ.     The  cause  of  this  severity 

*  Hottinger,  p,  127. 
2K  52 


410  HISTORY   OF   THE 

toward  Iloffmeister  is  not  explained ;  but  it  was,  probably, 
not  so  much  in  his  doctrine  as  in  his  manner :  in  a  want  of 
temper  and  discretion,  and,  perhaps,  of  due  respect  to  the 
rulers.* 

It  had  been  long  customary  in  the  church  to  celebrate  by  a 
festival  the  memory  of  the  public  entry  of  Christ  into  Jeru- 
salem, when  he  rode  upon  an  ass,  while  the  people  went  before, 
and  followed,  crying,  Hosanna  to  the  son  of  David,  strewing 
his  way  with  green  branches,  and  spreading  their  garments  in 
his  path.  The  festival  was  celebrated  on  the  Sunday  before 
Easter,  which  was  thence  called  Palm-Sunday.  A  figure  of 
an  ass  was  made  of  wood,  and  placed  upon  a  platform  that 
moved  upon  four  wheels,  and  a  priest,  or  a  wooden  image  of  a 
priest,  clad  in  a  peculiar  vestment,  was  seated  on  it,  as  a  rider, 
to  represent  the  Son  of  God.  At  an  early  hour,  the  people 
assembled,  bearing  branches  of  willows  for  palms,  which  the 
chief  priest  blessed,  with  long  and  pompous  prayer,  to  make 
them  effectual  against  storms  and  lightning.  The  priest  then 
prostrated  himself  before  the  image,  and  another  struck  him 
with  a  long  switch.  When  he  rose,  two  others  of  the  company 
prostrated  themselves  in  like  manner,  clad  in  strange  attire, 
and  singing  a  silly  ditty ;  and,  rising  again,  they  pointed  to 
the  rider,  singing,  Tliis  is  he  ivho  is  to  come  to  redeem  Israel 
from  the  poiver  of  hell,  ivhose  way  the  multitude  strewed  with 
falm  and  olive  branches.  While  this  was  chaunted,  the  crowd 
threw  down  their  branches ;  the  car  and  images  were  then 
drawn  or  carried  about  by  four  priests  wearing  gowns,  amidst 
the  ringing  of  bells  and  the  chaunting  of  the  Hex  glorise,  from 
Ps.  xxiv.  7-10;  they  were  borne  into  the  church,  preceded  by 
a  company  of  priests,  and  followed  by  the  multitude,  amidst  a 
scramble  for  the  consecrated  branches  that  were  to  guard 
them  against  the  tempest  and  the  thunderbolt. f  Superstition 
could  Imrdly  sink  lower  than  this  wretched  prostitution.  If 
infidels  should  undertake  to  burlesque  the  history  of  our  blessed 
Redeemer,  they  could  scarcely  invent  a  more  fitting  ceremony. 

*  Hottinger,  p.  127.  f  Neudecker's  Lexicon,  art.  Palm-Esel. 


GERMAN   REFORMED    CHURCH.  411 

As  extremes  often  meet,  so  a  sottish  superstition  and  a  sottish 
infidelity  will  not  seldom  touch  one  another  in  the  same  point. 

This  impious  festival,  together  with  the  blessing  of  Easter- 
bunns,  the  procession  with  the  sacrament  on  Whitsuntide,  and 
other  solemn  mummeries,  were  still  permitted,  indeed,  to  be 
celebrated  this  year,  but  were  now  prohibited  for  the  future. 
The  film  was  falling  from  men's  eyes ;  the  bands  which  the 
hierarchy  had  drawn  around  their  minds,  and  fastened  upon 
their  moral  sensibility,  were  loosening ;  a  monk  took  oif  his 
habit,  cast  it  down  at  the  abbot's  feet,  left  the  convent,  and 
married ;  and  the  example  was  followed  by  others,  both  priests 
and  monks.* 

Scliaffhausen  was  the  only  canton  that  was  represented  in 
the  public  disputation  in  Zurich,  on  the  subject  of  images  and 
the  mass,  in  October,  1523,  though  all  the  twelve  cantons  had 
been  invited.  Sebastian  Hoffman  was  one  of  the  three  pre- 
siding oiEcers  on  that  occasion  ;  the  others  being  Joachim  von 
Waat,  oi  St.  Cfall,  and  Christopher  Schappelar,  o^  3Iemmingen, 
in.  (jrerma7iy.-\  The  issue  of  that  disputation  made  a  good  im- 
pression at  Scliaffhausen.  Ritter  himself  became  a  convert  to 
the  evangelical  doctrine,  and  now  labored  to  promote  it,  with 
as  much  assiduity  as  he  had  previously  applied  in  his  efforts  to 
crush  it.  From  this  time,  the  cause  of  the  Reformation  became 
more  imposing.  The  abbot  Michael  surrendered  his  convent, 
with  all  its  property,  for  the  support  of  churches,  of  schools, 
and  of  the  poor,  reserving  only  certain  annuities  for  himself 
and  his  conventuals ;  a  convent  of  nuns  also  was  given  up  for 
the  same  objects ;  some  holidays  and  other  superstitions  were 
abolished ;  and  two  other  preachers  were  called  as  assistants 
to  Ritter  in  his  arduous  ministry.^ 

The  confederates  saw  these  events  with  great  pain.  The 
diet  assembled  at  Zug,  in  July,  1524,  sent  an  embassy  to  com- 
plain of  these  innovations,  and  to  communicate  their  determi- 
nation to  exclude  them,  by  the  severest  penalties,  and  at  the 
hazard  of  their  dearest  earthly  interests,  both  from  their  own 

*  Hottinger,  p.  128.  f  Ibid.  p.  18G.  %  Ibid.  p.  141-183. 


412  HISTORY   OF   THE 

domains,  and  from  the  provinces  over  -wliich  tliey  exercised  a 
common  sovereignty.  The  answer  of  the  council  shows  how 
far  Romanism  still  maintained  its  authority  in  this  canton. 
"The  holy  supper,  confession,  the  holy  mother  of  God,"  say 
they,  "  are  not  dishonored  with  us  ;  the  mass,  canonical  hours, 
extreme  unction,  are  observed;  no  violence  is  done  to  images; 
but  all  are  commanded,  by  a  public  mandate,  to  leave  them 
undisturbed  during  the  pleasure  of  government,  and  to  let  the 
government  dispose  of  them ;  nevertheless,  whoever  wishes 
to  take  away  images  consecrated  by  himself  or  his  ancestors, 
may  do  so  by  license  from  the  burgomaster.  .  .  .  Various 
other  ceremonies,  or  fripperies,"  they  add,  "had,  indeed, 
been  abolished;  divine  worship,  however,  had  not  been  in- 
jured thereby,  but,  on  the  contrary,  was  improved;  they 
put  all  their  trust  in  the  only  Saviour,  Mediator,  and  Re- 
deemer, Jesus  Christ ;  and  they  left  every  one  to  adopt  that 
faith  by  which  he  hoped  to  save  his  soul."* 

There  was  here  a  very  serious  departure  from  the  practice 
of  the  church,  and  a  still  more  serious  one  from  her  principles ; 
and  the  council  do  not  conceal  the  fact  that  they  might  still 
introduce  other  changes.  Schaffhausen,  nevertheless,  was 
yet  in  a  state  of  transition,  neither  wholly  enlightened  nor 
wholly  in  darkness.  Her  government  was  conservative,  will- 
ing to  retain  most,  or  many,  at  least,  of  the  rites  and  customs 
of  the  church.  The  people,  however,  were  in  advance  of  the 
rulers,  and  their  impatience  compelled  the  government  to 
change  their  position,  and  either  to  become  persecutors  for 
conscience'  sake,  or  to  complete  the  Reformation. 

Toward  the  close  of  the  year,  some  of  the  citizens  began  to 
eat  flesh  on  fast-days,  without  waiting  for  government  permis- 
sion. Others,  thinking  the  rulers  too  slow  in  abolishing  image- 
worship,  sallied  forth  at  night  and  destroyed  all  the  images 
to  which  they  found  access.  These  proceedings,  but  particu- 
larly the  latter,  created  a  great  sensation,  and  were  reprobated 
as  disorderly  by  all  parties.     The  rioters  were  arrested  and 

*  Hottinger,  p.  182. 


GERMAN   REFORMED   CHURCH.  413 

punished,  some  with  imprisonment,  others  ^vith  fines,  and  the 
most  guilty  with  banishment.* 

During  all  this  time,  the  bishop  of  Constance^  to  whose 
diocese  this  canton  belonged,  (though  not  within  his  secular 
bishopric,)  was  not  an  idle  spectator.  He  urged  strenuously 
the  duty  of  abiding  in  the  faith  of  the  infallible  church,  and 
sought  to  give  effect  to  his  exhortations  by  protests,  menaces, 
and  promises.  His  exertions  were,  however,  fruitless.  The 
council  answered,  in  substance,  that  all  they  wanted  from  him 
was,  that  he  should  permit  the  word  of  God  to  be  preached  in 
its  unadulterated  purity. 

The  pope,  also,  Clement  VII.,  addressed  an  epistle  to  this 
canton,  dated  February  5th,  1525,  of  similar  import  with 
another  of  the  14th  of  the  same  month,  addressed  to  Zurich. 
In  both  of  these  briefs,  his  holiness  poured  out  upon  the  Re- 
formation, and  its  promoters,  unmeasured  vituperation  and 
invective,  designed  to  overwhelm  them  with  a  flood  of  public 
odium,  while  he  employed  the  most  soothing  blandishments  to 
gain  and  to  attach  firmly  to  the  communion  of  the  church 
those  in  whom  a  spark  of  reverence  for  her  institutions  con- 
tinued still  to  glow.f 

Whatever  influence  these  efforts  might  have  upon  members 
of  the  council,  or  upon  a  few  of  the  citizens,  on  the  mass  of 
the  people  they  seem  to  have  exerted  none.  The  government 
took  possession,  about  the  16tli  of  May,  of  the  convent  of  All 
Saints,  which  had  been  surrendered  to  it ;  and  this  event  seems 
to  have  given  a  new  impulse  to  the  spirit  of  the  people,  who 
were  impatient  of  the  slow  action  of  their  rulers  in  reforming 
the  worship  of  the  church.  It  was  customary,  on  Whitsuntide, 
to  renew  the  oath  of  allegiance  to  government.  When  the 
day  arrived,  one  entire  guild,  that  of  the  vine-dressers,  and 
other  citizens,  refused  to  swear  until  the  government  would 
promise  to  abolish  the  use  of  images.  They  repeated  this 
demand,  soon  afterward,  in  a  manner  which  the  rulers  deemed 
it  prudent  to  respect.     A  commission  was  appointed  to  act 


*  Hottinger,  p.  183.  f  I'^''*^-  P-  227. 

2k2 


414  HISTORY   OF   THE 

with  these  citizens  in  putting  away  these  obnoxious  images ; 
but,  when  the  passions  of  the  multitude  had  subsided,  and 
the  rulers  felt  themselves  in  sufficient  strength,  they  retraced 
their  steps,  and  sent  the  most  violent  of  the  discontented  into 
banishment.  An  insurrection  was  the  consequence.  A  small 
body  rose  in  arms,  and  demanded  liberty  of  conscience.  They 
were  subdued,  however,  without  bloodshed,  amerced  in  heavy 
fines,  and  compelled  to  swear  unconditional  fealty.* 

The  two  reformers,  Hoffman  and  Hoffmeister,  were  charged 
with  having  provoked  the  insurrection  by  their  preaching,  and 
both  were  dismissed  from  their  ministry.  Hoffmeister  went 
to  Zurich,  and  was  appointed  preacher  at  the  church  of  Notre 
Dame.  In  1528,  he  was  called  to  Bern,  and  later  to  Zojin- 
gen,  in  the  same  canton.  He  died  of  apoplexy,  in  1533. 
Ritter  and  his  two  assistants  continued  their  reforming  labors, 
and  ultimately  reaped  where  their  predecessors  had  sown. 

Schaffhausen  was  early  infested  by  the  Anabaptists  who 
came  from  the  canton  of  Zurich,  and  the  same  troubles  that 
arose  from  this  fanatical  sect  in  other  places  were  experienced 
also  here.  The  disorder  which  they  introduced  became  a  very 
serious  hinderance  to  her  reformation,  and  was,  doubtless, 
among  the  causes  that  produced  the  hesitation  and  the  incon- 
sistency which  subsequently  characterized  the  action  of  her 
rulers. 

*  Hottinger,  p.  249. 


GERMAN   REFORMED   CHURCH.  415 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE  REFORMATIOX  IN  THE  CAXTOX  OF  GLARDS. 

't 

The  canton  of  Glarus  is  situated  betAveen  those  of  Schweitz 
and  Uri  on  the  west,  the  Cfrisons  on  the  south  and  east,  and 
the  counties  of  Sargans,  Werdenberg,  and  G-aster,  now  in- 
cluded in  the  canton  of  St.  G-all,  on  the  east  and  north.  It 
is  enclosed  on  all  sides,  except  the  north,  by  lofty  mountains, 
whose  summits  are  covered  with  perpetual  snow.  It  is  a 
mountainous  country :  only  about  a  fifth  part  of  its  surface  is 
arable  land,  the  rest  being  used  as  pasturage  for  cattle,  sheep, 
and  goats.  The  inhabitants  are  generally  a  nomadic  people. 
They  are  estimated  at  from  24,000  to  30,000.  The  capital, 
G-larus,  contains  4000,  who  are  chiefly  employed  in  manu- 
factures. 

The  name  Crlarus  is  a  corruption  of  Hilarius,  the  name  of 
a  saint,  in  whose  honor  a  shrine  had  been  erected  in  these 
mountains.  The  female  abbey  of  Seekingen  was  at  one  time 
the  sovereign  of  this  country,  and  all  the  inhabitants,  with  the 
exception  of  forty  families,  who  constituted  the  nobility,  were 
serfs  to  the  saintly  institution.  The  country  passed  after- 
wards into  the  possession  of  Austria.  In  the  fourteenth  cen- 
tury, (1352,)  it  joined  the  Swiss  confederation ;  and  the  two 
battles  of  Ncifels,  in  1352  and  1388,  in  which  the  Glareans 
triumphed  over  superior  numbers  of  their  enemy,  secured  to 
them  the  enjoyment  of  their  independence. 

The  government  of  this  canton  is  a  pure  democracy.  The 
sovereign  power  resides  in  the  landsgemeine,  or  general  assem- 
bly of  the  people,  consisting  of  all  the  male  natives  above  the 
age  of  sixteen.  It  meets  once  a  year,  elects  its  magistrates, 
and  decides  upon  the  projects  of  laws  that  are  submitted  to  it 
by  the  landrath,  or  general  executive  council.  The  landam- 
man  is  the  chief  executive  magistrate.     The  landhuch  contains 


416  HISTORY   OP   THE 

the  laws  of  the  canton.  Among  this  nomadic  people,  there 
reigns  as  unlimited  a  freedom  as  is  at  all  consistent  with  social 
order ;  the  written  laws  are  few,  respecting  chiefly  the  safety 
of  persons  and  property,  and  the  use  of  commons ;  the  rest  is 
unwritten  usage  and  ancient  custom.  As  the  government  of 
the  whole  country  is  dependent  from  the  will  of  the  people,  so 
every  particular  parish  is  a  community  within  itself,  and  is 
governed  in  its  own  afiairs  by  the  changeful  popular  will. 
Every  man  is,  therefore,  a  politician  from  his  youth,  and  occu- 
pies himself,  from  his  boyhood,  with  the  interests  of  the  state 
and  the  policy  and  acts  of  her  rulers. 

Zwingle's  ministry  in  Criarus  terminated  in  1516,  the  same 
year  in  which  his  religious  reformation  began.  In  his  vicinity 
were  Gregorius  Binzli,  pastor  of  Wesen,  the  instructor  and 
friend  of  his  youth ;  Adam  Binzli,  in  the  town  of  Mollis;  Var- 
schon,  pastor  of  JCerenzen;  Fridolin  Brunner,  and  Johannes 
Schindler.  With  these  he  conversed  on  the  corruptions  of 
Christian  doctrine  in  the  church ;  and  the  last  two  he  com- 
mended to  the  church  of  Gla7'U8,  in  the  dedication  of  his 
Hesolutiones,  or  exposition  of  his  theses,  in  1523,  as  faithful 
evangelical  preachers.* 

Lange  names  Valentine  Tschudy,  Fridolin  Brunner,  and 
Jacob  Fogel,  as  the  first  reformers  of  Crlaj'us.'f  Tschudy  was 
the  successor  of  Zwingle  in  the  pastorship.  He  was  a  learned 
and  amiable  man,  a  friend  of  Zwingle,  and,  in  his  youth,  a 
pupil  of  his  academy  in  Glarus.  He  was  a  moderate  Papist, 
friendly  to  the  Reformation,  but  no  reformer.  J  He  did  not 
enter  upon  the  duties  of  his  parish  until  the  year  1522 ;  and 
the  vicar  whom  he  employed,  though  he  had  previously  feigned 
an.  attachment  to  the  evangelical  doctrines,  proved  to  be  a 
furious  enemy,  and  labored  with  might  and  main  to  destroy 
the  fruit  of  Zwingle's  labor.§  The  principal  reformer  of  this 
canton  was  Fridolin  Brunner.  In  a  letter  written  to  My- 
conius,  in  1540,  he  says  :   "  I  was  the  first  evangelical  preacher 

-*  Schuler's  Huldr.  Zwingli,  p.  169.  f  Hottinger,  p.  13. 

%  Hottinger,  p.  G48.      §  Ibid.  p.  62.  Schuler's  Huldr.  Zwingli,  p.  225,  226. 


GERMAN   REFORMED    CHURCH.  417 

in  Glarus.  I  suffered  much  on  that  account ;  I  v.-as  deprived 
of  my  effects,  driven  into  exile ;  in  a  ^vord,  plunged  into  peril 
both  of  life  and  of  means  of  subsistence.  But,  in  all  this, 
God's  help  and  consolation  powerfully  sustained  me."*  Being 
one  of  Zwingle's  early  and  confidential  friends,  he  was,  doubt-: 
less,  among  the  first-fruits  of  his  ministry  in  Crlarus.  Beside 
him,  we  must  place  Johannes  Schindler,  whom  Zwingle  com- 
mends to  the  Glareans  as  a  faithful  minister  of  Christ ;  and 
others  there  were,  engaged  in  the  same  work,  whose  names 
are  untold.  Many  of  the  men  of  eminence  in  the  republic 
were  prevented,  by  earthly  considerations,  from  embracing 
the  doctrine  of  the  Reformation,  while  they  respected  the 
person  and  character  of  the  reformer. f  A  few  of  this  class 
received  the  truth,  and  were  sustained  in  it  by  divine  grace^ 
unhurt  by  the  madness  of  the  faithless  vicar  who  now  occu- 
pied the  unfortunate  parish. 

Zwingle  preached  the  sermon  at  the  induction  of  his  suc- 
cessor, Valentine  Tschudy,  in  October,  1522,  and,  on  this 
occasion,  said  to  the  hearers,  that  he  had  formerly  indulged 
them  in  much  of  human  traditions,  but  would  now  exhort  them 
to  adhere  exclusively  to  the  divine  word.J:  Tschudy  read  his 
first  mass.  He  married,  some  time  afterwards,  and  was,  for 
that  reason,  forbidden  to  say  mass,  but  was  not  expelled  from 
the  living. §  The  reason  of  this  indulgence,  probably,  was, 
that  the  people  themselves  possessed  the  right  to  elect  or  to 
dismiss  their  pastors,  and  they  were  now  sufficiently  enlight- 
ened to  permit  them  to  live  in  the  matrimonial  state,  though 
the  bishop  might  interdict  the  celebration  of  mass.  He  died 
in  1555,  and  Avas  succeeded  by  Brunner.  Throughout  his 
ministry  he  remained  neutral,  neither  opposing  the  gospel  nor 
promoting  it ;  and  when,  after  the  defeat  of  the  Reformed  at 
Cappel,  the  Papist  and  the  Reformed  worship  were  both  per- 
formed in  the  same  church  in  Glarus^  he  preached  for  both 
parties.     Some  of  the  Papists  opposed  him,  desiring  to  have  a 


*  Hottinger,  p.  132.  f  Scliuler's  Huklreich  Zwingli,  p.  168. 

X  Ilottinger,  p.  92.  §  Ibid.  p.  648. 

53 


418  HISTORY   OF   THE 

priest  who  could  celebrate  mass  ;  but  the  influence  of  his  large 
and  noble  connections  among  the  people  sustained  him.* 

The  state  of  things  in  the  following  year  may  be  inferred 
from  a  letter,  written  by  one  of  the  Tschudys,  in  July,  1523. 
The  writer  apprized  Zwingle  that  a  diet  of  the  confederates, 
held  at  Bern,  had  resolved  to  apprehend  him  if  he  were  found 
within  any  of  their  domains,  and  added,  "  If  you  are  inclined 
to  make  an  excursion  to  us,  you  may  do  so  cheerfully  and 
safely.  It  has  been  proposed  in  our  council,  that  we  should 
unite  with  the  other  confederates  in  abolishing  and  prohibiting 
the  evangelical  doctrine,  agreeably  to  a  resolution  of  the  diet 
at  Baden  ;  but  we  were  not  willing  to  burden  ourselves  there- 
with. Our  answer  will  be.  We  have  curators  of  souls,  and 
trust  that  they  declare  to  us  the  truth.  Although  our  kins- 
man, the  amman  Tschudy,  raves  with  vehement  outcry,  I 
trust,  nevertheless,  that  things  will  soon  become  better  with 
us."t  Two  years  later,  at  the  Easter  festival,  in  1525,  the 
landgenieine  decreed,  that  the  people  should  no  longer  par- 
ticipate in  the  great  crucigerous  pilgrimage  to  JEmsiedehi  in 
honor  of  the  holy  virgin.  The  ancient  custom  required,  that 
one  person  out  of  every  family  should  join  in  this  holy  expedi- 
tion ;|  and  this  rule  had  hitherto  been  scrupulously  observed; 
but  the  delusion  had  now  passed  away  before  the  light  that 
shone  upon  the  land.§  This  canton,  nevertheless,  proceeded 
no  farther  during  this  period ;  it  did  not  yet  adopt  the  great 
principle  of  the  reformers.  That  the  Bible  alone  is  the  rule  of 
faith  and  the  fountain  of  Christian  doctrine  ;  and  it  was  not 
until  after  many  conflicts  that  the  Reformation  ultimately 
prevailed  within  its  borders. 

*  Hottinger,  p.  648.  f  Ibid.  p.  131. 

X  Bernhard  Weiss,  in  Fueslin,  vol.  iv.  p.  57.  g  Hottinger,  p.  239. 


GERMAN   HEFORMED    CHURCH.  41S 


CHAPTER   III. 

THE  REFORMATION  IN  THE  CANTONS  OF  SCHWEITZ,  ZUG,   LUZERN,   ETC. 

West  of  Crlarus,  in  the  Alpine  regions,  are  the  cantons  of 
Sehweitz,  Uri,  Unterwalden,  and  Zug,  of  which  the  first  three 
are  called  Waldstcidten,  or  Forest-towns.  These  foui'  cantons 
have  Luzern  and  Bern  on  the  west ;  the  Italian  bailiwicks, 
now  the  canton  of  Tessin,  or  Ticino,  on  the  south ;  the  Grri' 
sons  and  Crlarus  on  the  east ;  and  the  modern  St.  Cfall  and 
Zurich  on  the  north. 

The  three  Forest-towns  achieved  the  victory  of  3Iorgarten, 
in  1315,  over  Leopold,  grand-duke  o^  Austria,  and  formed  the 
perpetual  league  of  Brunneti  on  the  9th  of  December  of  the 
same  year.  They  constituted  the  original  confederation  of 
which  Schioeitz  was  the  principal  member.  To  these,  the 
cantons  of  Luzern,  Zurich,  Crlarus,  Zug,  and  Bern,  acceded 
prior  to  the  year  1353  ;  and  these  eight  cantons  were,  at  the 
time  of  the  Reformation,  called  the  old  cantons.  Frilmrg  and 
Soleure  entered  the  confederacy  in  1481,  Basel  and  Sehaff- 
hausen  in  1501,  and  Appenzell  in  1513.  The  last  five  were 
then  the  new  cantons ;  but,  in  contradistinction  from  the  nine 
cantons  of  modern  origin,  all  the  thirteen  are  now  called  the 
old  cantons. 

It  was  in  Schiveitz  that  the  standard  of  liberty  was  first 
erected,  and  from  this  canton  the  whole  country  derives  its 
name.  Its  government  is  a  pure  democracy.  So,  also,  are 
those  of  Uri,  Zug,  and  Unterwalden.  But,  strong  as  is  the 
attachment  of  the  people  of  these  cantons  to  civil  liberty, 
freedom  from  human  domination  in  things  spiritual  has  nowhere 
found  less  acceptance.  They  resisted  the  encroachments  of 
the  hierarchy  upon  their  secular  rights,  or  murmured  aloud 
when  the  power  of  prevention  failed.     They  even  did  not 


420  HISTORY   OP   THE 

hesitate  to  enter  into  alliances  "with  foreign  princes  against 
the  court  of  Rome,  when  they  could  profit  by  so  doing ;  but, 
wherever  religion  was  concerned,  or  only  seemed  to  intervene, 
they  submitted  with  devout  reverence  to  the  dictates  of  the 
lordly  pontiffs.  They  even  asked,  as  a  boon  from  the  pope, 
permission  to  eat  their  own  butter  and  cheese,  and  started 
with  horror  at  the  suggestion  that,  by  such  compliances  with 
the  holy  father's  will,  they  were  serving  men  and  not  God. 

In  the  canton  of  Sclnveitz,  where  Zwingle  himself  labored 
two  years  and  a  half,  from  the  end  of  June,  1516,  to  the  close 
of  December,  1518,*  where  his  doctrine  was  so  well  recei\ied 
by  the  inhabitants  of  Einsiedehi,  and  the  landratJi  expressed 
their  regret  at  his  removal, — in  this  canton  we  would  have 
expected  an  early  prevalence  of  the  doctrine  of  the  Reforma- 
tion, and  a  distinguished  work  of  divine  grace ;  but  here  we 
are  painfully  disappointed.  Sclnveitz  saw  in  Zwingle  a  benefi- 
cent luminary,  and  was  willing,  for  a  season,  to  rejoice  in  his 
light ;  but,  like  Chorazin  and  Bethsaida,  where  a  greater  light 
shone,  and  like  the  still  more  favored  Capernaum,  they  soon 
closed  their  eyes  upon  its  beams,  and  returned  to  their  dark- 
ness. The  increase  is  neither  of  Paul  nor  Apollos,  but  of 
God ;  and  if  he  pour  out  his  spirit  upon  one  place,  and  pass 
by  another,  it  becomes  us  to  say,  with  Jesus,  "  Yea,  Father, 
even  so  it  seemed  good  in  thy  sight." 

In  1522,  we  find  some  of  the  priests  of  Sclnveitz  advocating 
the  doctrine  of  the  reformer.  Among  these  was  Balthazar 
Trachsel,  pastor  of  the  town  of  Art,  and  one  of  the  eleven 
clerics  who  subscribed  the  "humble  supplication"  to  bishop 
Hugo  in  behalf  of  the  free  preaching  of  the  gospel  and  the 
marriage  of  the  clergy.  In  the  same  year,  Zwingle  preached 
again  to  the  pilgrims,  who  crowded  Einsiedeln  to  pay  their 
devotions  to  the  image  of  the  virgin,  at  the  grand  festival  of 
the   angelic   dedication. f     Stapfer,  the   secretary-general   of 

r 

*  He  accepted  the  call  to  Einsiedeln,  April  14th,  and  took  his  leave  of 
Glarus,  June  30th,  1516.  See  Schuler's  Huld.  Zwingli,  p.  222  and  note  132. 
Voegelin's  Jahrtafel,  anno  1516. 

f  Hottinger,  p.  85-86. 


GERMAN'   REFORMED    CHURCH.  421 

tlie  canton,  embraced  the  truth ;  and  there  were,  doubtless, 
many  others  of  less  note  that  followed  in  the  same  path,  whose 
names  are  unknown.  But  all  traces  of  the  evangelical  doc- 
trine wer-e  soon  afterward  obliterated  by  an  exasperated  bigotry 
and  the  terrors  of  persecution. 

In  the  canton  of  Ziig,  Jodocus  Mliller,  pastor  of  Cliam,  on  . 
the  Zuger-See,  was  devoted  to  the  gospel,  and  suffered  many 
things  in  its  cause.  In  Zug,  the  capital,  were  Werner  Stciner 
and  Bartholomew  Stocker.  These  pious  men  saw,  indeed, 
that  the  prospect  before  them,  as  to  the  reformation  of  their 
country,  was  dark  and  forbidding ;  but,  hoping  for  a  change, 
they  persevered  in  labor  and  affliction  while  hope  sustained 
them.  Steiner  was  the  pastor  of  a  little  flock  of  believers. 
Zwingle  wrote  to  him,  in  1523,  "  Salute  Bartholomew  Stocker 
and  your  Christian  church.  Strengthen  the  church  with  pure 
doctrine,  and  exhort  them  not  to  fear,  though  they  be  a  little 
flock."  But,  in  the  fall  of  the  same  year,  the  pastor  was 
driven  into  exile,  and  the  church  was  scattered  by  persecution. 
Many  of  Zug  and  Bar  continued  to  seek  edification  by  fre- 
quenting the  neighboring  church,  in  Cappel,  within  the  terri- 
tory of  Zurich;  but,  in  the  following  year,  this  practice  was 
prohibited  under  a  heavy  penalty,  and  the  converts  were  left 
to  choose  between  a  total  destitution  and  a  voluntary  exile.* 
Steiner  found  an  asylum  in  Zurich,  where  he  seems  to  have 
spent  the  remainder  of  his  days. 

In  Uri  and  Unterwalden,  which  are  situated  south  of 
Schweitz  and  Zug,  and  more  remote  from  Zurich,  the  doc- 
trine of  the  Reformation  seems  to  have  made  no  impression, 
though  it  reached  beyond  them  into  the  Valais  and  into 
Italy. 

Farther  west  is  the  canton  of  Luzern.  Its  border,  on  the 
south  and  west,  is  the  canton  of  Bern  ;  on  the  north  and  east 
it  had  the  same  canton  and  the  free  bailiwicks,  but  now  the 
canton  of  Argau ;  on  its  eastern  border  are  Schweitz  and 
Unterwalden.     This  canton  is  the  fourth  of  the  Waldstadten, 


*  Hottinger,  p.  91,  126. 
2L 


422  HISTORY   OF  THE 

or  Forest-towns.  Its  capital  is  the  city  of  Luzem.  The 
form  of  its  government  is  aristocratic. 

Myconius,  the  intimate  friend  of  Zwingle,  was  called  to  the 
rectorship  of  the  school  of  this  city,  in  1520,  and  presently 
began  to  advocate  here  the  cause  of  the  Reformation.  He 
found  both  friends  and  opponents  of  his  doctrine,  but,  of  the 
former,  few  who  had  courage  enough  even  to  hope  for  success. 
They  admitted  that  the  doctrine  was  Christian,  but  thought 
Zwingle  and  Myconius,  unarmed  as  they  were  by  church 
power,  too  weak  to  sustain  it.  The  opposers  ascribed  it  to 
the  devil,  and  found  the  proof  of  its  infernal  origin  in  its  con- 
trariety to  the  established  forms.  Among  the  friends  of 
Myconius  were  the  two  canons,  Jodocus  Kilchmeyer  and 
Johannes  Zimmerman,  or  Xylotectus.  The  former  was  one 
of  the  eleven  signers  of  the  "humble  supplication"  to  the 
bishop,  in  1522 :  the  latter,  appalled  by  the  danger,  wept 
when  he  withheld  his  subscription.  Henry  Loritt,  the  learned 
and  accomplished  Glareanus,  being  on  a  visit  to  Luzem,  vindi- 
cated Zwingle  and  Myconius  there,  and  subsequently  addressed 
to  the  latter  a  hortatory  letter  to  support  his  courage.  He 
requested  Zwingle,  at  the  same  time,  to  do  his  utmost  for  him, 
"  lest  the  madmen,  who  denounced  as  a  heretic  every  sincere 
lover  of  Christ,  should  prevail."  The  reformer  advised  his 
oppressed  friend  to  endeavor  to  win  his  adversaries  by  kind- 
ness rather  than  by  disputing.  Myconius  persisted  in  his 
eflForts,  but  his  enemies  grew  in  their  hostility :  toil  and  care 
overcame  him ;  he  fell  sick.  Hoflfmeister,  at  Sehaffhauseriy 
learning  his  situation,  comforted  him  by  a  letter  full  of  spiritual 
unction.* 

It  was  customary  in  Luzem  to  commemorate  a  former  con- 
flagration by  a  solemn  procession  bearing  crosses,  and  a  Latin 
oration  delivered  by  a  stranger,  on  the  eve  of  the  annunciation 
of  Mary.  The  duty  of  delivering  the  address,  in  1522,  was 
committed  to  Conrad  Schmid,  knight  of  the  order  of  St.  John 
of  Jerusalem,  and  commander  of  Kiisnacht,  in  the  canton  of 


*  Hottinger,  p.  51,  54,  62,  8G. 


GERMAN   REFORMED    CHURCH.  423 

Zurich.  To  this  honor  his  merit  commended  him ;  but  he  had 
embraced  the  reformed  doctrine.  Instead  of  addressing  his 
auditory  in  Latin,  he  astonished  them  by  speaking  in  the 
vernacular  tongue,  and,  in  place  of  the  customary  oration, 
preaching  an  evangelical  sermon.  He  taught  them  "  that 
God  had  promised  forgiveness  of  sins  in  Christ,  and  had  sealed 
his  promise  by  the  sacraments ;  nevertheless,  no  one  must 
presume,  on  account  of  this  mercy,  to  indulge  in  sin ;  this 
grace  is  obtained  by  faith  only,  and  not  by  works ;  as  Christ 
is  our  head,  is  always  with  us,  and  is  never  separated  from 
his  body,  the  church,  we  need  no  representative  of  him,  and 
the  pope  is,  therefore,  neither  a  vicar  of  Christ,  nor  head  of 
the  church."  Though  some  heard  this  discourse  with  pleasure, 
others  raised  a  vehement  outcry  against  it.  Schmid  was  induced 
to  publish  it  for  his  own  vindication,  and  a  sharp  controversy 
ensued  between  him  and  the  pastor  of  Luzerii.'^ 

About  the  same  time,  a  priest  having  eloped  with  the  wife 
of  a  citizen,  the  injured  husband  pursued  the  fugitives,  and 
brought  back  his  faithless  partner ;  but  he  received  from  the 
spiritual  father  a  wound,  of  which  he  afterward  died.  Kilch- 
meyer  was  moved,  by  this  occurrence,  to  preach  against  the 
law  of  celibacy.  But  his  honest  appeals  were  fruitless.  A 
priest,  who  had  contracted  a  matrimonial  engagement  with  a 
nun,  was  obliged  to  flee  for  his  safety,  and  the  intended  bride 
was  subjected  to  close  confinement.  Kilchmeyer  was  called 
to  account  for  his  preaching,  Avhile  the  murderous  adulterer, 
so  far  as  appears,  Avent  unpunished.  The  civil  authority  could 
not  punish  him,  and  the  ecclesiastical,  it  seems,  would  not. 
Not  long  afterwards,  Kilchmeyer  was  prosecuted  for  his  signa- 
ture to  the  "humble  supplication"  of  Uinsiedebi,  and  the 
prosecution  was  marked  by  such  bitterness,  that  he  was  neces- 
sitated, after  some  delay,  to  seek  a  residence  elsewhere.f 
Sebastian  Hoffman  of  Strashurg  preached  in  Luzern  against 
the  invocation  of  saints,  and  Avas  forced  away  by  an  episcopal 
ban.     Myconius  foresaw  that  he  would  not  fare  better,  and 

*  Hottinger,  p.  80.  f  Ibid.  p.  89. 


424  HISTORY   OF   THE 

took  his  dismission.  Zwingle  wished  him  to  continue  longer, 
but  this  he  founctoimpossible ;  and,  being  called  to  Einsiedeln 
by  the  administrator  Geroldseck,  he  accepted  the  new  situa- 
tion, and  left  the  place  of  his  nativity,  the  home  and  the 
friends  of  his  youth,  for  ever.*  Kilchmeyer  and  Zimmerman 
protracted  their  stay  until  1523  or  1524,  when  they,  also, 
bade  adieu  to  their  country  and  people.  Zimmerman  went  to 
Basel,  where  he  died  of  the  plague,  in  1526.  Kilchmeyer 
took  up  his  abode  in  Zurich.  Luzern  was  now  left  to  the 
darkness  which  it  loved.  Severe  measures  were  adopted 
against  the  so-called  Lutheran  doctrine ;  internal  disputation 
on  the  subject  of  religion  ceased,  and  a  calm  ensued.  It  was 
the  calm  of  death,  from  which  the  canton  woke  not  airain : 
and  Luzern  was  now  the  most  embittered  of  the  hostile  con- 
federates, f 

Between  the  canton  of  Bern,  on  the  east  and  north,  and  the 
Pai/s  de  Vaud,  now  the  canton  of  Vaud,  on  the  south  and 
west,  is  the  canton  of  Friburg  or  Freiburg,  i.  e.  Freehurg. 
Its  population  is  differently  estimated  at  from  67,000  to 
84,000.  After  the  fall  of  the  western  empire,  this  country 
and  the  neighboring  parts  of  Bern,  were  so  utterly  desolated 
by  the  irruptions  of  the  Allemani  and  other  barbarous  hordes, 
that  they  received  the  name  of  Uclitland,  a  corruption  of 
of  Oedland,  from  the  adjective  oede,  that  is,  desolate,  and,  in 
Latin  writers,  JDesertum  Helvetiorum,  desert  of  the  Helvetians. 
The  capital,  Friburg,  contains  about  6500  inhabitants.  It 
was  originally  a  free  city,  as  its  name  imports,  independent 
of  the  neighboring  feudal  lords,  and  possessing  a  small  terri- 
tory around  it ;  but,  by  degrees  it  enlarged  its  jurisdiction, 
until  it  acquired  the  whole  country  which  now  constitutes  the 
canton.  Its  government  at  the  time  of  the  Keformation,  and 
until  the  political  changes  which  took  place  after  the  French 
invasion,  in  1798,  was  aristocratic. 

North  of  Friburg,  and  separated  from  it  by  a  part  of  the 
territory  of  Bern,  is  the  canton  of  Soleure,  or  Solothurn.     It 

*  Hottinger,  p.  90,  99.  f  Ibid.  p.  123. 


GERMAN   REFORMED    CHURCH,  425 

borders,  in  the  north,  on  Alsace,  now  a  part  of  France,  and 
the  canton  oi  Basel ;  in  the  east,  on  Arrjau,  now  the  canton 
of  that  name  ;  in  the  south,  on  Bern  ;  and  west,  on  the  bishop- 
ric of  Basel,  now  included  in  the  last-named  canton.  Its 
population  is  about  54,000.  Soleure,  or  Solothurn,  situated 
on  the  Aar,  and  containing  about  4000  inhabitants,  is  the 
capital.     The  government  is  aristocratic. 

Both  these  cantons  were,  from  the  commencement  of  the 
struggle  for  religious  liberty,  more  indulgent  to  the  Reforma- 
tion than  the  five  last  named,  and  in  Soleure,  particularly, 
the  prospect  of  success  was  at  one  time  very  flattering ;  but, 
during  this  period,  little  that  is  important  presents  itself  to 
our  notice. 

In  Frlburg,  the  cantor,  John  Vannius,  the  organist,  John 
Kother,  and  Peter  Falk,  one  of  the  rulers,  were  friends  of  the 
truth,  and  a  priest,  whose  name  is  not  given,  preached  the 
gospel  with  such  power,  that  hope  of  a  favorable  issue  was 
entertained. 

In  Soleure,  the  city-clerk,  Macrinus,  in  a  letter  to  Zwingle, 
expressing  his  attachment  to  the  evangelical  doctrine,  stated 
that  not  a  few  in  the  city  were  of  the  same  sentiment.  He 
became  involved  in  disputes  with  some  of  the  priests  about 
the  mass,  the  priestly  oflSce,  &c.  The  government  interposed, 
and  promised,  if  the  parties  could  not  agree,  to  call  in  Zwingle 
and  other  learned  men.  A  year  later,  a  certain  Franciscan 
had  influence  enough  with  the  rulers  to  persuade  them,  in  a 
noiseless  way,  to  set  themselves  against  the  propagation  of 
the  new  opinions.  To  this  determination,  it  is  not  improbable, 
they  were  the  more  easily  brought  by  the  indiscreet  zeal  of 
some  converts,  who,  thinking  they  ought  at  once  to  let  their 
light  shine  before  men,  dishonored  the  church-laws  by  eating  ^ 
flesh  on  the  customary  fast-days.  A  shock  was  given  to 
Popish  prejudices  by  this  ill-timed  assertion  of  Christian 
liberty,  and  every  thing  was  put  in  jeopardy.  The  ofienders 
were  banished ;  Macrinus,  the  preacher,  Philip  Groz,  and  four 
others,  were  sent  away.  Macrinus  was  afterward  restored; 
but  on  the  condition  that  he  should  not  speak  of  Luther  nor 


426  GERMAN   REFORMED   CHURCH. 

of  his  doctrine,  and  should  deliver  up  all  heretical  books. 
These  measures  arrested  the  work  of  reformation  in  this 
canton  during  the  remainder  of  this  period ;  but  a  leaven 
was  still  left,  that  wrought  unseen,  and  became  apparent  when 
time  and  circumstances  favored  its  manifestation.* 

*  Hottinger,  p.  91,  126. 


BOOK  III. 

SECTION  III.— PROPAGATION  OF  THE  GOSPEL  FROM 
ZURICH  AND  CONSTANCE  IN  THE  EASTERN  PART 
OF   SWITZERLAND. 


Fkom  Zurich  and  Constance,  the  Reformation  soon  reached 
the  free  imperial  city  of  St.  Gall,  the  territories  of  the  abbey 
of  St.  Gall,  the  counties  of  TJmrgau,  MJiinethal,  Tokkenburg, 
&c.,  the  canton  of  Appeiizell,  and  the  country  of  the  Grisons. 
To  these  localities  we  shall  now  give  attention,  without,  how- 
ever, observing  the  order  in  which  they  are  enumerated. 


CHAPTER  I. 

THE  REFORMATION  IN  THE   FREE  CITY  OF   ST.  GALL. 

Central  to  all  but  the  last  of  these  countries,  is  the  city 
of  St.  Gall,  now  the  capital  of  the  canton  of  the  same  name, 
which  was  formed  by  the  French,  in  1803.  It  derives  its 
name  and  its  origin  from  the  rich  Benedictine  abbey  once 
situated  within  its  walls,  but  suppressed  in  1814.  The  number 
of  its  inhabitants  is  about  nine  thousand.  It  was  formerly 
subject  to  the  abbey,  but,  at  the  time  of  the  Reformation,  was 
a  free  state,  in  alliance  Avith  the  old  cantons,  and  represented 
by  a  delegate  in  their  diets.  Its  government  was  administered 
by  a  great  and  a  lesser  council,  over  which  the  burgomaster 
presided.  Its  trade  and  commerce  enriched  the  citizens,  and 
made  it  a  centre  of  intelligence  and  refinement,  and,  at  the 
same  time,  supplied  facilities  for  the  introduction  of  the  Re- 
formed doctrines. 

427 


428  HISTORY   OF   THE 

The  chief  mover  in  the  reformation  of  this  city  was  Joachim 
von  AYaat,  or  Vaclianus,  a  nobleman,  a  man  of  letters,  and  a 
physician.  He  was  a  native  of  &'t.  Gall,  born  December  30th, 
1484.  His  name  was  held  in  honor,  and  his  acquaintance 
was  cherished  by  the  learned  and  good  of  every  country.  In 
his  youth,  he  was  a  fellow-student,  at  Vienna,  of  Zwingle, 
Glareanus,  Eckius,  and  Faber,  and  formed  with  the  first  that 
friendship  which  bound  him  in  affection  to  the  reformer  of  his 
country  throughout  life.  He  subsequently  taught  in  a  school 
at  Villach,  in  Oarinthia,  whence  he  returned  to  Vienna.  The 
fame  of  his  talents,  his  writings,  and  his  public  disputations 
soon  brought  him  eminence  and  honors.  In  consequence  of 
some  complimentary  verses  composed  by  him,  in  honor  of  the 
emperors  Frederick  III.  and  Maximilian  I.,  the  latter,  in  1514, 
conferred  on  him  the  distinction  of  poet-laureate.  He  travelled 
through  Hungary,  Poland,  and  Italy,  visited  his  paternal  home 
in  1514  or  1515,  and,  on  his  return,  was  appointed  professor 
of  philosophy  and  rhetoric,  and  vice-chancellor  of  the  univer- 
sity. On  account  of  the  plague,  which  raged  at  Vienna,  he 
resigned  his  office,  and  returned  to  his  own  country  in  1518. 
Here  he  was  elected  a  member  of  the  lesser,  or  executive 
council,  and  burgomaster  of  the  city,  and  closed  an  honorable 
and  useful  life  by  his  death,  on  the  6th  of  April,  1551,  in  the 
sixty-seventh  year  of  his  age.  His  valuable  library  he  be- 
queathed to  the  city,  where  it  is  still  preserved.  It  contains 
many  precious  manuscripts,  among  which  is  a  chronicle  com- 
prehending thirteen  folio  volumes  of  letters  of  the  most  ce- 
lebrated Swiss  and  German  reformers.* 

Vadianus  did  not  attempt  to  reform  by  obtruding  himself  as 
a  public  teacher  of  religion ;  but  he  sustained  and  directed  the 
movements  of  others,  to  whose  office  the  duty  of  public  in- 
struction pertained.  The  first  evangelical  preachers  of  this 
city  were  Benedict  Burgauer  and  his  assistant,  or  deacon, 
"Wolfgang  Wetter,  who,  as  early  as  1521,  had  already  laid  a 

*  Edinburgh  Encyc,  art.  St.  Gall,  Hottinger,  p.  38,  796,  Scliuler's  Huld- 
reich  Zwingli,  p.  184. 


GERMAN   REFORMED    CHURCH.  429 

good  foundation  for  the  Reformed  faith.*  They  were  joined, 
in  1523,  by  John  Kcsslcr,  a  theological  graduate,  -ffho  had 
studied,  successively,  at  Basel  and  at  Wittenberg.  He  was  one 
of  the  two  young  Swiss  of  St.  Gall  who  met  Luther  at  the  inn 
at  Jena,  travelling  in  the  habit  of  a  knight,  on  his  way  to  Wit- 
tenberg, from  his  late  concealment  in  the  castle  of  Wartburg, 
whose  story  D'Aubigne  tells, f  andAvho  were  so  captivated  by  the 
manner  and  the  conversation  of  the  stranger,  that  they  talked  of 
him  with  admiration  as  they  went.  On  his  return  to  his  native 
city,  he  was  immediately  called  to  preach  the  gospel,  though 
not  ordained.  "In  1523,"  says  he,  in  one  of  his  letters, 
"when  I  returned  from  Wittenberg,  I  was  appointed  to 
preach,  and  co-operated,  from  the  beginning,  with  Benedict 
and  Wolfgang."!  In  the  same  year,  Hubmeyer,  of  Walds- 
hut,  being  on  a  visit  to  St.  Gall,  preached  in  the  church  of 
St.  Manges ;  and,  on  the  occasion  of  the  customary  great  pro- 
cession to  the  church  of  St.  Laurence,  on  the  third  of  May, 
so  great  was  the  concourse  of  eager  listeners,  that  he  addressed 
them  in  the  open  air,  and  afterwards,  in  the  market-place, 
spoke  to  them  from  the  window  of  an  adjoining  house.  At 
the  request  of  the  citizens,  in  1524,  Kessler  spent  an  hour,  on 
every  Sunday  and  Friday  morning,  in  expounding  to  them  the 
word  of  God.  Subsequently,  Wolfgang  Ulman,  a  monk  of 
St.  Luke's,  at  Coii-e,  and  Dominicus  Zilli,  a  schoolmaster, 
were  successively  called  to  perform  the  same  office.  The 
people  hungered  and  thirsted  for  the  word  of  God,  but  there 
was  none  to  feed  them.  The  priests  and  the  monks,  who 
ought  to  have  ministered  to  them  the  bread  and  the  water  of 
life,  were  intent  only  on  the  enjoyment  of  their  ease,  while 
they  feasted  themselves  on  the  fat  of  the  land,  and  left  the 
famishing  flocks  to  provide  for  themselves  as  they  best  could ; 
and  hence  it  was,  that  any  who  cared  for  their  souls,  and 
possessed  an  acquaintance  with  the  Holy  Scriptures,  were 
gladly  accepted  as  religious  teachers. § 


*  Hottinger,  p.  64.  |  Hist,  of  the  Ref.,  vol.  iii.  p.  68. 

X  Hottinger,  p.  128.  g  Ibid.  p.  152. 


430  HISTORY   OF   THE 

St.  Crall-was,  represented  at  the  public  disputation  in  Zurich^ 
on  the  subject  of  images  and  the  mass,  in  October,  1523,  by 
Vadianus  and  Burgauer ;  and  the  former  was  one  of  the  three 
moderators  who  presided  on  that  occasion.*  The  result  of 
that  meeting  was  propitious  to  the  cause  of  the  Reformation. 
The  council  of  St.  Crall  published  a  mandate,  on  the  5th  of 
April,  1524,  commanding  the  pastors  and  preachers  of  the 
parish  churches  to  preach  the  word  of  God,  and  nothing  else, 
in  their  pulpits ;  and  they  followed  the  example  of  Zurich,  in 
the  abolition  of  image-worship,  so  far  as  existing  circumstances 
would  permit.  They  permitted  the  images  to  be  privately 
removed  from  the  churches,  and,  soon  after,  ordered  their 
removal  from  the  streets  and  highways,  and  from  under 
shadowy  trees,  where  they  were  honored  by  the  people  with 
religious  veneration,  like  the  idols  of  the  apostate  Jews  of  old, 
which  they  had  set  up  on  every  high  hill  and  under  every 
green  tree.f  Kessler  was  authorized  to  have  his  morning 
service  in  the  church  of  St.  Laurence,  from  which  arose  the 
morning  lectures,  that  are  still  continued,  or  were,  at  least,  in 
Hettinger's  time.  The  ancient  custom,  also,  of  taking  up 
collections  on  every  Lord's  day  for  the  relief  of  the  poor, 
which  the  apostles  had  introduced,  was  restored.  The  Papist 
worship  was  retained  in  the  cathedral  and  in  the  chapels  of 
the  monasteries.  Their  preachers  were  sometimes  interrogated 
by  over-zealous  citizens,  not  only  in  the  streets,  but  even  in 
the  pulpits,  respecting  the  ground  of  their  faith.  This  prac- 
tice always  created  irritation.  It  was,  therefore,  prohibited ; 
and  those  who  desired  to  be  informed  of  the  doctrine  of  reli- 
gion were  directed  to  apply  to  the  counsellor  Vadianus,  to 
the  preachers  Burgauer  and  Wetter,  and  to  the  city-clerk, 
Fechter.J 

This  city,  as  a  place  of  confluence  from  all  parts  of  Stvitzer- 
land,  was  early  infested  by  the  fanatical  Anabaptists.  The 
monk  Ulman  became  a  convert,  and  was  baptized  by  immersion, 


*  Hottinger,  p.  136.  f  Ibid.  p.  180.     2  Kings,  xvii.  10. 

J  Hottinger,  p.  195. 


GERMAN   REFORMED    CHURCH.  431 

by  Conrad  Grebel,  in  the  Rhine,  at  Schaffhaiisen.  Returning 
to  *SY.  Gall,  he  there  propagated  his  new  opinions.  He  now 
forsook  the  churches,  as  the  residence  of  an  antichristian 
worship,  and  preached  in  the  market-place,  the  fiekis,  and  the 
woods.  Grebel  soon  followed.  lie  was  received  by  the  new 
disciples  with  joy,  and  many  of  them  were  by  him  immersed 
in  the  Sitter.  Some  of  the  enthusiasts  of  ZolUkon,  near 
Zurich,  came,  also,  and  with  them  some  of  those  who  had 
escaped  from  prison,  and  were  proclaiming  their  miraculous 
deliverance  by  an  angel.  The  infection  spread  with  amazing 
rapidity,  and  in  a  short  time  the  new  church  numbered  eight 
hundred  members.  Adult  baptism  was  their  passport  to 
heaven.  "The  converts,"  says  Hettinger,  "inquired  only 
for  the  baptizing-house,  and  returned  from  it  as  if  they  had 
been  at  a  barber's  shop."*  St.  Cfall  was  their  "Little  Jeru- 
salem." The  leaders  conceived  that  they  ought,  like  the 
apostles,  to  go  forth  into  all  the  parishes.  They  went  forth, 
accordingly,  every  morning,  toward  the  east  and  west,  the 
north  and  south.  One  of  them,  John  Kriisi,  went  southward 
to  Teufen,  in  Appenzell,  and  there  effected  the  expulsion  of 
the  aged,  learned,  and  meritorious  Sheurtanner,  who,  unpre- 
pared for  such  a  shock,  sank  under  the  weight  of  his  grief, 
and  died.  Kriisi  was  seized  at  St.  Creorges,  in  the  territories 
of  the  abbey,  and  sent  to  Luzern,  where  he  was  burnt  alive 
for  heresy.  Two  others  of  their  preachers  were  burnt  in  the 
canton  of  Schiveitz.  They  endured  the  flames  with  heroic 
fortitude,  and  with  constant  invocation  of  the  name  of  Christ. 
To  prevent  disorders,  the  government  forbade  all  preaching 
without  the  churches ;  but  no  heed  was  given  to  their  decree. 
The  uneducated  preachers  sought  to  cover  their  ignorance  and 
want  of  mental  discipline  by  commencing  their  discourses  with 
the  words  of  Christ,  "  I  thank  thee,  0  Father,  Lord  of  heaven 
and  earth,  that  thou  hast  hidden  these  things  from  the  wise 
and  prudent,  and  hast  revealed  them  unto  babes,  "f 

At  this  time,  (1525,)  Zwingle  published  two  works  against 

*  Hottinger,  p.  2G6.  t  I^i<l- 


432  HISTORY   OF   THE 

the  Anabaptists,  one  of  v»liicli  lie  dedicated  to  the  people  of 
his  native  country,  Tolckenburg,  and  the  other  to  the  council 
of  St.  G-all  "When  Dominicus  Zilli  attempted  to  read  from 
this  latter  work,  for  the  information  of  the  Anabaptists,  they 
left  the  church,  exclaiming,  that,  in  the  church,  the  word  of 
God,  and  not  the  word  of  Zwingle,  should  be  read.  "  With  the 
word  of  God,  however,"  says  Hottinger,  "  they  dealt  no  better. 
The  New  Testament  they  tore  and  cast  into  the  fire,  saying, 
The  Testament  consists  in  the  spirit :  the  letter  kills,  but  the 
spirit  quickens." 

The  horrible  tragedy,  which  was  acted  at  the  house  of 
Shugger,  on  the  Mulegg,  where  one  of  the  sons,  in  a  fanatical 
frenzy,  cut  ofi"  the  head  of  his  brother,  in  a  fancied  obedience 
to  the  will  of  God,  dispelled  the  strange  illusion;  and  the 
slaughtered  brother's  head  and  the  wild  hallucination  of 
Anabaptism  fell  together  in  St.  Gall. 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE  KEFORMATION  IN  THE  CANTON  OF  APPENZELL. 

South  of  St.  G-all,  and  surrounded  by  the  countries  which 
now  form  the  canton  of  the  same  name,  is  the  canton  of 
Appenzell.  Appenzell  is  divided  into  the  outer  and  the  inner 
rhode.  The  former  is  much  the  most  populous.  The  govern- 
ment of  this  canton  is  democratic :  it  is  composed  of  the 
landgemeine,  or  general  assembly  of  the  people,  in  which  all 
the  male  natives  above  eighteen  years  of  age  are  entitled  to 
vote,  and  which  meets  once  a  year ;  the  landrath,  or  general 
council,  which  is  elected  by  the  people  ;  and  the  landammany 
or  chief  executive,  who  is  chosen  in  the  same  way.  The 
council  propose  all  laws  to  the  people  assembled  in  the 
landgemeine,  from  whose  sanction  they  receive  their  legal 
validity. 


GERMAN    REFORMED    CHURCH.  43S 

Since  the  year  1597,  the  two  rhotlcs,  into  which  the  canton 
is  divided,  constitute  two  distinct  republics,  each  having  its 
own  internal  government,  and  being  independent  of  the 
other ;  but  in  their  external  relations  they  are  considered  one 
canton,  and  are  represented  in  the  diet  by  one  delegate,  who 
is  appointed  alternately  by  the  outer  or  the  inner  rhode.  The 
capital  of  the  outer  rhode  is  Trogen ;  that  of  the  inner  is 
Appenzell. 

This  country  was  little  known  before  the  seventh  or  the 
eighth  century,  when  the  Frankish  kings,  who  ruled  over 
Eastern  Helvetia,  bestowed  the  royal  domains  in  this  wilder- 
ness to  the  abbey  of  St.G-all.  By  degrees,  the  abbey  acquired 
the  jurisdiction  of  the  whole  country,  which  was  confirmed  to 
it  by  the  emperor  Adolphus  of  Nassau,  in  1292.  The  abbot 
built  a  monastery,  dependent  on  that  of  St.  Gall,  in  this 
remote  solitude,  which  was  called  Ahhatis  Cella,  i.  e.  the 
abbot's  cell ;  in  German,  Abten  Zell,  which,  for  easier  pro- 
nunciation, was  changed  into  Appen-Zell.  In  process  of  time 
the  monastery  gave  birth  to  a  town  that  grew  up  around  '1$, 
and  received  its  name ;  and  as  the  abbot's  jurisdiction  was 
gradually  spread  over  the  country  around  his  cell,  the  name 
spread  with  it,  and  was  given  to  all  the  land  over  which  it 
extended. 

The  inhabitants  of  this  country  enjoyed  considerable  privi- 
leges under  the  dominion  of  the  abbey ;  but,  under  such  a 
government,  much  depended  on  the  personal  character  of  the 
abbot  for  the  time  being.  Some  of  the  abbots  encroached,  or 
suflfered  their  bailiffs  to  encroach,  on  the  liberties  of  the 
people ;  they  levied  new  taxes  on  their  butter  and  cheese  that 
were  already  taxed,  and  committed  other  acts  of  oppression. 
The  people  complained ;  but  they  complained  in  vain  :  despair- 
ing of  redress  from  their  oppressors,  they  resolved  to  right 
themselves,  and,  taking  up  arms,  threw  off  the  abbot's  yoke. 
A  war  ensued,  in  which  both  parties  found  allies,  and  fierce 
battles  were  fought ;  but  the  people  triumphed,  and,  after  a 
hard  conflict,  Ajypenzell  was  acknowledged  as  an  independent 

state.     In  1513,  it  was  received  into  the  Sw^ss  confederation, 
2  M  55 


434  HISTORY   OF   THE 

and  became  the  thirteenth  and  last  of  the  old  cantons.  The 
Appenzellers  have  ever  since  retained  their  independence  and 
their  simple  form  of  government,  except  during  the  French 
domination,  after  the  invasion  of  1798 ;  a  time  when  nations 
ran  mad  with  false  notions  of  liberty. 

The  year  in  which  this  canton  was  reformed  is  not  exactly 
known ;  but  it  is  certain  that  its  reformation  was  early,  and 
that  it  began  in  many  places  at  the  same  time.  Twenty-six 
of  the  priests  had  declared  themselves  on  the  side  of  the 
reformation  as  early  as  1522.  The  writings  of  the  reformers 
had  brought  them  to  a  stand  ;  they  examined  the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures, and  were  taught  by  them  to  see  the  errors  of  the  reign- 
ing superstition.  Enlightened  by  the  knowledge  of  the  truth, 
the  example  of  Zurich  emboldened  them  to  expose  the  cor- 
ruptions of  the  church.  The  first  who  ventured  upon  this 
warfare  was  the  venerable  and  exemplary  pastor  of  Tcufen, 
Jacob  Sheuertanner,  to  whom  Zwingle  subsequently  dedicated 
his  book  on  the  pastoral  office,  entitled,  "  The  Shepherd." 
IJe  died,  as  we  have  elsewhere  said,  of  a  broken  heart,  in 
consequence  of  his  expulsion  by  the  Anabaptist  Kr'usi,  who 
destroyed  his  work,  pretending  to  teach  a  purer  gospel.* 

The  chief  antagonist  of  these  preachers  was  Theobald  Hit- 
ter, pastor  in  Appenzell,  a  shrewd,  crafty  priest,  whom  Zwin- 
gle called  "the  papal  fox."  While  a  general  awakening  was 
spreading  over  the  parishes  of  the  outer  rhode,  Huter  was 
vigilant  in  guarding  the  inner  rhode  against  the  infection  of 
the  new  doctrines.  He  was  disturbed,  however,  even  in  Ap- 
fenzell,  by  the  two  chaplains,  John  Hess  and  Ulric  Urnesh, 
who  preached  the  Keformed  doctrines.  Two  other  chaplains 
supported  Hiiter.  The  council  were  favorable  to  free  discus- 
sion. Willing  that  the  people  should  be  informed  of  the 
claims  of  both  forms  of  doctrine,  they  ordained  that  both 
should  be  preached  alternately.  "  In  pursuance  of  this  order," 
says  Lange,  a  Papist  writer,  "  Huter  had  preached  a  sermon; 
but  when  Hess,  in  his  turn,  attempted  to  do  the  same,  a  com- 

*  Hottinger,  p.  92. 


GERMAN   REFORMED    CHURCH.  435 

mon  peasant,  moved  by  the  excellently  good  old  Roman  Ca- 
tholic zeal,  laid  hold  upon  him  publicly,  in  the  church,  and 
■would  not  suffer  him  to  enter  the  pulpit ;  and  afterwards,  the 
■women  having  supplied  themselves  with  stones,  the  preacher 
was  compelled,  in  the  tumult,  to  flee  for  his  safety."*  This 
seemed  to  Lange  a  very  pleasant  occurrence.  Examples  of 
this  sort  of  Roman  Catholic  zeal  were  by  no  means  rare,  and 
men  like  this  writer  might  often  enjoy  the  same  felicitation. 

In  July,  1524,  a  deputation  from  the  diet  of  the  confede- 
rates assembled  at  Zug,  arrived,  to  remonstrate  against  the 
growing  defection  from  the  faith  of  the  church,  and  to  hold 
forth  the  same  means  of  intimidation  which  they  had  employed 
in  Zurich.  The  mission  was,  however,  without  effect. f  In 
the  same  year,  the  landgemcine,  at  a  full  meeting,  both  elected 
officers  of  the  Reformed  religion  and  adopted  the  distinctive 
principle  of  the  Reformation,  That  the  Bible  is  the  only  rule 
of  faith  and  jJractice.  A  decree  was  passed,  and  subsequently 
read  in  all  the  parishes,  commanding  all  the  priests  to  preach 
only  what  they  could  sustain  by  the  Holy  Scriptures ;  those 
who  would  still  teach  otherwise,  were  to  be  deprived  of  their 
livings  and  banished  from  the  country ;  every  priest  was  re- 
quired to  give  security,  in  a  penalty  of  a  hundred  guilders,  to 
make  the  Old  and  New  Testament  the  standard  of  his  preach- 
ing ;  no  preacher  was  to  be  contradicted  publicly  in  the  pulpit ; 
and  no  other  than  the  word  of  God  was  to  be  the  judge  of 
controversy.! 

Though  this  decree  was  adopted  in  the  landgemeine  by  a 
large  majority,  it  was  far  from  being  quietly  submitted  to  by 
all,  especially  in  those  parishes  where  the  majority  were  still 
Papists.  The  opposition  was  so  serious,  that  the  landrath, 
anxious  for  the  public  tranquillity,  solicited  Zurich  and  Schaff- 
hausen  to  mediate  between  the  parties,  requesting  them,  also, 
to  send  Avith  their  deputations  two  of  their  learned  men,  who 
might  meet  the  opponents  in  a  public  discussion.  Deputations 
came,  accordingly  from  those  states,  and  with  them  came  Leo 

*  Hottinger,  p.  93.  f  Ibid.  p.  183.  J  Ibid.  p.  193. 


43^  HISTORY   OP  THE 

Juda  from  Zurich,  and  Sebastian  Hoffmeister  from  Schaff- 
Jiausen  ;  but,  before  their  arrival,  an  accommodation  had  been 
effected.*  "What  this  accommodation  was,  Hottinger  does  not 
inform  us ;  but  we  learn,  from  another  source,  that,  after  a 
violent  contention,  it  was  agreed  to  let  every  parish  decide 
for  itself  upon  the  question  at  issue.  This  was,  accordingly, 
done  ;  and  six  out  of  the  eight  parishes  of  the  canton  adopted 
the  Reformation,  and  proceeded  immediately,  without  regard 
to  further  consequences,  to  reform  their  worship. f 

The  most  prominent  of  the  reformers  of  Appenzell  was 
Walter  Klarer.  He  returned,  in  1521,  from  his  studies  in 
Paris,  where  he  had  spent  four  years  as  a  royal  stipendiary. 
In  the  following  year,  he  became  pastor  of  his  native  town, 
Hundivyl,  where  he  spent  the  remainder  of  his  days.  He 
was  still  living,  and  actively  engaged  in  the  work  of  the 
ministry,  in  1584.  The  time  of  his  death  is  unknown.  He  is 
the  author  of  a  history  of  the  reformation  in  Appenzell,^ 
written  in  1565,  which  is  preserved  in  Simler's  collection  of 
manuscripts,  in  the  citizens'  library  at  Zurich. 

Appenzell  shared  largely  in  the  disturbances  created  by  the 
Anabaptists.  They  were  lamentably  united  in  their  efforts  to 
expose  to  public  odium  the  evangelical  preachers  who  did  not 
embrace  their  creed,  and  were  thus,  without  intending  it, 
efficient  auxiliaries  to  the  papacy.  Their  number  in  this 
canton  was  estimated  at  twelve  hundred,  and  their  fanatical 
zeal  multiplied  their  importance  for  evil  tenfold. 

*  Hottinger,  p.  194.  f  Gieseler's  Lehrb.,  vol.  iii.  p.  168. 


OERMAN  REFORMED   CHURCH.  437 


CHAPTER  III. 

THE  REFORMATION  IN  THE  COUNTIES  OF  THURGAU,  RHINETHAL,  THE 
TERIUTORIES  OF  THE  ABBEY,  Ac. 

North  of  AppenzeU,  was  the  territory  of  the  abbey  of  St. 
Gall,  extending  from  lake  Constance,  on  the  east,  to  the 
canton  of  Zurich,  in  the  west.  Its  sovereign  was  the  abbot, 
who  governed  it  by  a  captain-general,  under  the  protection  of 
the  four  cantons  of  Zurich,  Gflarus,  Schweitz,  and  Luzern. 
The  inhabitants  were  serfs,  who  were  bowed  down  under  a 
heavy  yoke  and  oppressive  burdens. 

East  of  Appenzell,  between  that  canton  and  the  Rhine,  lay 
the  Rhinethal,  or  valley  of  the  Rhine,  extending  along  that 
river  from  lake  Constance,  in  the  north,  to  the  county  of 
Werdenherg,  in  the  south.  It  was  subject  to  the  eight  ancient 
cantons  of  Zurich,  Bern,  Luzern,  Zug,  Schtveitz,  Qlarus,  Uri, 
and  Unterioalden,  who  appointed  its  landvogt,  or  governor. 

West  of  Appenzell,  and  bordering  upon  Zurich,  is  the  county 
of  Tokkenhurg,  the  native  country  of  Zwingle.  Its  temporal 
lord  was  the  abbot  of  ;SV.  Gall,  under  the  supremacy  of  the 
canton  of  Schweitz.  Its  internal  government  was  administered 
by  a  landraih,  or  general  council,  composed  of  citizens  who 
were  elected  by  the  people  in  their  landgemeine,  or  general 
meeting.  A  landvogt,  or  governor,  who  represented  the  abbot, 
presided  in  its  sessions  as  umpire,  but  exercised  no  other  pre- 
rogative. The  landrath  reported  its  proceedings  to  the  govern- 
ment of  Schweitz.  This  country  had  long  since  passed  from 
the  ancient  counts  of  Tokkenhurg  to  the  abbey  of  St.  Gall, 
which  enjoyed  its  revenues.  Under  the  administration  of  its 
new  lords,  the  inhabitants  had,  about  the  time  of  Zwingle's 
birth,  by  long  and  arduous  struggles,  disenthralled  themselves 
from  feudal  servitude.  They  now  breathed  the  air  of  free- 
dom, and  enjoyed,  in  their  delightful  freshness,  the  first  fruits 

of  liberty. 
2m2 


438  HISTORY   OF   THE 

North  of  the  territory  of  the  abbey,  bordering  upon  late 
Constance  and  the  river  Rhine,  in  the  east  and  north,  and 
bounded  by  Zurich,  in  the  west,  lies  the  county  of  Thurgau, 
now  the  canton  of  that  name.  It  was  a  dependency,  in  crimi- 
nal jurisdiction,  of  the  ten  cantons  of  Zurich,  Bern,  Luzern, 
Zug,  Schweitz,  Cflarus,  Uri,  Untenualden,  Frihurg,  and  >S'o- 
leure;  perhaps  of  the  eight  more  ancient  cantons  only,  in  other 
matters.  It  was  wrested  from  Austria  in  1460.  Frauenfeld 
is  the  capital.  Its  internal  administration  was  vested  in  a 
governor,  appointed  by  the  confederates,  a  judicial  body  of 
fifty-five  justiciaries,  and  a  landgemeine,  composed  of  these 
justiciaries  and  the  anwdlte,  or  representatives  of  the  several 
parishes. 

South  of  Werdenherg,  between  the  Grisons,  on  the  east  and 
south,  and  Cflarus,  on  the  west,  is  the  county  of  Sargans,  a 
dependency  of  seven  of  the  cantons  ;  and  west  of  Werdenherg 
and  ToTchenhurg  is  the  county  of  Cfaster.  All  these,  (except 
Thurgau,)  with  the  cities  of  Rapperschwyl  and  Utznach,  and 
the  towns  of  Schanis  and  Wesen,  are  now  comprehended  in 
the  new  canton  of  St.  Gfall. 

The  doctrine  of  the  reformers  appears  to  have  penetrated 
into  Thurgau  at  an  early  period  of  the  Reformation.  In 
1523,  it  had  already  entered  into  one,  at  least,  of  the  monastic 
institutions,  the  female  convent  of  Danikon,  or  Tenikon,  some 
of  whose  inmates  had  relinquished  their  order,  and  entered 
into  the  bonds  of  wedlock.  But  its  progress  was  greatly 
accelerated  by  the  persecution  which  arose  in  G-ermany  after 
the  insurrection  of  the  peasants,  in  1525.  The  adherents  of 
the  Reformation  being  confounded  with  the  late  insurgents, 
they  were  exposed,  with  the  guilty,  to  the  vengeance  of  the 
exasperated  rulers,  who  adhered  to  the  Romish  faith.  Their 
preachers  were  particularly  the  objects  of  persecution.  Many 
of  them  sought  a  refuge  from  the  storm  in  Switzerland,  and 
some,  coming  into  Thurgau,  propagated  their  doctrine  in  this 
more  hospitable  region.  The  bishop,  Hugo  of  Constance, 
requested  the  governor  to  arrest  these  fugitives.  The  ruling 
cantons,  also,  gave  orders  to  the  same  functionary  to  appre- 


GEKMAN   REFORMED   CHURCH.  439 

hend  the  recreant  nuns,  but  it  was  easier  to  give  orders  of  this 
kind  than  to  execute  them.  In  the  same  year,  inroads  began 
to  be  made  upon  the  ceremonies  of  the  church,  particuhirl  j  in 
the  mass  and  the  form  of  baptism,  and  the  law  of  celibacy  was 
falling  into  neglect.  A  decree  was,  therefore,  published,  by 
a  diet  of  the  ruling  cantons  assembled  at  Frauenfeld,  forbid- 
ding these  departures  from  the  laws  and  usages  of  the  church, 
and  threatening  every  priest,  who  should  disobey,  with  expul- 
sion from  his  benefice.  The  Reformation  having  extended 
into  the  territory  of  the  abbey,  the  deputies  of  three  of  the 
guardian  states,  assembled  at  RapiHrsclnvyl,  on  the  Zurich- 
See,  directed  the  captain-general  to  publish  the  same  decree 
throughout  his  jurisdiction,  and  to  arrest  every  one  who  should 
contravene  it  in  any  particular,  declaring  their  settled  pur- 
pose to  preserve  the  ancient  customs  unchanged,  and  to  visit 
every  offence  with  the  rigors  of  punishment. 

These  measures  were,  however,  ineffectual.  There  was  a 
voice  that  spoke  to  the  heart,  and  spoke  louder  than  the 
decrees  of  earthly  rulers :  it  was  the  plague  that  spread  its 
desolations  over  the  land,  and  waked  up  men's  consciences  to 
a  sense  of  their  sins,  and  a  recognition  of  the  judgment  of 
God :  they  felt  their  need  of  support  and  consolation  from 
religion,  and  they  found  it  best,  or  found  it  alone,  in  the  doc- 
trine of  the  reformers  and  the  word  of  God.  They  betook 
themselves  to  the  Bible  and  to  the  ministry  of  the  Reforma- 
tion, and  repaired  to  Constance,  and  to  other  places  in  their 
vicinity,  to  be  edified  by  the  preaching  of  the  pure  gospel, 
and  carried  thither,  also,  their  infant  children,  to  dedicate 
them  to  God.  Among  these  anxious  inquirers  were  the  nuns 
of  the  monastery  of  Mllnsterlingen,  whom  the  Lord's  spirit 
had  touched  and  had  disquieted  in  their  lonely  habitation. 
They  felt  the  want  of  something,  which  neither  the  convent 
nor  the  church  of  Rome  supplied,  for  the  peace  of  their  souls ; 
and  in  their  distress,  they  issued  forth  from  their  cloister,  and 
heard  the  ministers  of  the  word,  to  learn  from  their  instruc- 
tions the  way  of  eternal  life. 

The  Papist  rulers  became  more  alarmed ;  deputies  from  six 


440  HISTOKY   OF   THE 

of  the  cantons  assembled  at  Tohcl,  in  the  vicinity  of  the  in- 
fected districts ;  they  summoned  before  them  the  representa- 
tives of  the  disaifected  parishes,  to  account  for  their  pro- 
ceedings, and  issued  a  mandate,  by  which  they  rebuked  the 
adherents  of  the  new  doctrine,  for  their  obstinacy  in  what 
they  called  the  Lutheran  heresy,  and  threatened  them  with 
the  vengeance  of  the  ruling  states  if  they  should  still  persist 
in  the  same  errors.  A  special  deputation  was  sent  to  3I'dn- 
sterlingen  to  reclaim  the  nuns  from  their  offences,  and  to  keep 
them  to  their  vows  by  the  terrors  of  punishment. 

But  all  these  efforts  could  not  prevent  the  progress  of  the 
truth.  Men's  hearts  might  fear,  indeed,  the  wrath  of  men, 
and  shrink  from  pains  and  penalties ;  but  they  feared  the 
wrath  of  Heaven  more,  when  his  judgments  were  abroad  :  and 
those  who  had  tasted  the  richness  of  redeeming  grace  were 
constrained  by  a  nobler  motive,  a  principle  which  nothing 
could  overcome,  the  power  of  love.* 

In  ToJcJcenburg,  the  preachers  of  the  reformation  found  a 
soil  prepared  for  the  reception  of  the  divine  word,  and  a  rich 
harvest  soon  rewarded  their  faithful  labor.  We  find  no  ac- 
count of  the  first  introduction  of  the  Reformed  faith  into  this 
country,  nor  of  the  devoted  men  who  laid  the  foundation  of  its 
reformation ;  but  it  is  manifest  that  it  soon  participated  in 
the  reforming  activity  which  prevailed  in  Zurich  and  its 
vicinity.  In  the  summer  of  1524,  the  effect  of  the  hidden 
leaven  appeared  on  the  surface  ;  the  landrath,  at  the  instance 
of  the  people,  convened  the  clergy  within  their  limits,  and 
enjoined  them  to  preach  the  word  of  God  without  human  addi- 
tions, and  to  teach  only  what  they  could  prove  by  the  Holy 
Scriptures.  This  was  the  decisive  act  that  everywhere  proved 
fatal  to  the  doctrine  of  Rome.  Some  of  their  priests  con- 
tinued, nevertheless,  to  maintain  the  superstitions  of  the 
church ;  and,  in  order  to  silence  their  brethren,  or  to  distress 
them  at  least,  preferred  complaints  against  them  to  the  bishop 
at  Constance.     The  bishop  applied  to  the  abbot  of  St.  (rail,  as 

*  Hottinger,  p.  143,  237,  252. 


GERMAN  REFORMED  CHURCH.  441 

the  temporal  lord  of  Tolckenhiirg,  and  the  abbot,  no  longer 
possessing  the  power  of  coercion,  submitted  the  case  to  the 
landrath.  But  the  landratli  were  not  now,  as  they  once  had 
been,  obedient  sons  of  the  church :  a  fact  which  the  prelate, 
perhaps,  had  not  yet  observed.  The  spiritual  father  at  Con- 
stance complained,  particularly,  that  these  preachers  refused 
to  pay  the  poenaUs  and  to  submit  to  the  authority  of  the 
chapter.  Their  reply  was  worthy  of  freemen  and  Christians. 
They  appealed  to  the  command  given  them  by  the  landrath^ 
to  preach  exclusively  the  doctrine  of  the  Bible  ;  and  declared 
their  readiness  to  show  that  they  had  faithfully  conformed  to 
that  divine  rule.  Their  oflSce,  they  said,  did  not  permit  them 
to  publish  in  the  church  any  thing  but  the  word  of  God.  The 
poenaks  they  did  not  owe.  They  were  willing  to  do  any 
thing,  not  for  the  chapter  only,  but  for  the  humblest  indivi- 
dual, if  it  were  in  accordance  with  the  Holy  Scriptui-e,  but 
whatever  was  contrary  to  that  rule  they  would  do  for  no  one, 
however  mighty  and  great  he  might  be.  The  landrath  ac- 
cepted their  plea,  and  reaffirmed  their  former  injunction. 
Papal  and  epis*copal  briefs  ceased  to  be  published  in  the  pul- 
pits, und  jyoenales  were  abolished.* 

The  landamman  and  landrath  of  Schweitz  now  interposed, 
as  the  supreme  authority  in  Tohhcnhurg,  by  a  mandate,  dated 
in  December  of  the  same  year.  They  spoke  in  strong  terms 
of  reprobation  of  the  Lutheran  and  Zwinglian  sect,  and 
strenuously  urged  their  utter  extinction,  lamenting  over  their 
tendency  to  diminish  the  honors  of  the  mother  of  God,  and 
of  the  other  saints,  and  the  credit  of  the  laudable  customs 
which  holy  men  had  introduced  and  their  forefathers  had 
reverenced. 

This  missive,  conceived  in  the  spirit  which  had  dictated  the 
menacing  message  of  the  confederates  to  Zurich,  and  exem- 
plified in  the  fate  of  the  unfortunate  Ilottinger  and  other 
victims,  created  some  alarm.  It  failed,  nevertheless,  to  accom- 
plish its  design.     In  the  following  year,  three  of  the  parishes 


Ilottinger,  p.  187,  210,  254. 
56 


442  HISTORY   OF   THE 

followed  the  example  of  Zurich  in  abolishing  the  mass. 
Scliiveitz  and  Glarus  now  addressed  a  joint  missive  of  similar 
tenor  to  the  landratli.  Some  members  of  the  council  became 
alarmed,  and  were  inclined  to  make  their  submission,  but 
others  would  consent  to  nothing  that  contravened  the  word 
of  God.  The  matter  was  ultimately  referred  to  the  people,  in 
their  respective  parishes,  for  a  decision.  All  the  parishes 
resolved  to  adhere  to  the  gospel,  and  besought  the  landratli, 
who  had  a  year  before  commanded  their  preachers  to  make 
the  written  word  exclusively  the  rule  of  their  teaching,  to  pro- 
tect them  in  the  enjoyment  of  this  right,  and  for  that  object 
to  hazard  every  other  interest.  The  council  assented,  and 
confirmed  anew  their  previous  order.  It  was  a  time  of  rebuke 
and  affliction.  The  terrible  scourge  that  swept  over  the  land, 
and  sent  so  many  to  the  judgment-seat  of  God,  awakened 
fears  which  nothing  but  the  gospel  could  compose.  Men  stood 
in  awe  of  the  almighty  and  holy  Being  in  whose  power  they 
felt  themselves  to  be.  They  looked  about  them  for  support 
and  comfort  in  their  distress.  They  found  it  in  the  word  of 
God  and  the  hope  which  it  inspired ;  and,  having  tasted  the 
preciousness  of  its  consolations,  they  Avere  prepared  to  suifer 
the  loss  of  all  things  that  they  might  secure  this  better  and 
more  enduring  substance.* 

From  Appenzell,  the  doctrine  of  the  reformers  spread  into 
the  adjacent  Rheinthal,  whose  governor  received  orders  from 
the  sovereign  confederates  to  apprehend  and  confine  every 
evangelical  preacher.  But  these  were  orders  which  it  was 
impossible  to  execute.  If  one  preacher  was  arrested,  another 
rose  in  his  place ;  and  where  God  poured  out  his  spirit  upon 
the  people,  the  contradiction  of  men  was  a  vain  thing.  It 
might  increase  the  conflict  of  darkness  with  the  light,  but  it 
could  not  ultimately  prevail. f 

In  the  county  of  Sargans,  two  priests  were  prosecuted  for 
heresy.  The  one  had  denounced  the  mass,  and  the  other  had 
married  a  wife.     The  former  was  dragged  to  prison,  and  the 


*  Hottinger,  p.  254.  t  I^id.  p.  194. 


GERMAN  REFORMED  CHURCH.  443 

latter  driven  into  exile.  But  the  gospel  was  not  expelled  by 
these  severities.  Jacob  Russinger,  abbot  of  the  monastery  of 
PfcfferSy  writing  to  Zwingle,  in  March,  1523,  said :  "  When 
we  write  to  you,  our  beloved,  it  is  not  for  our  own  sake  only, 
but  for  those,  also,  who  are  related  to  us  in  the  bonds  of 
Christian  love,  and,  with  us,  adhere  to  the  evangelical  doc- 
trine, of  whom  we  have  a  goodly  number."*  This  prelate, 
indeed,  was  allured  back  to  the  embraces  of  Rome  by  flatter- 
ing attentions,  and  the  hope  of  a  cardinalship ;  but  neither 
did  his  defection  wholly  arrest  the  progress  of  the  truth. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

REFORMATION  IN  THE  GRISOXS,   OR  GRAU-BtJNDEN. 

The  country  of  the  Cfrisons  is  bounded  on  the  north  and 
the  east  by  the  Voralberg  and  the  county  of  Tyrol^  in  Austria; 
on  the  south  by  the  Valteline,  the  dutchy  of  Milan,  and  the 
new  canton  of  Ticino;  on  the  west  and  north-west  by  the 
cantons  of  Uri  and  Cflarus,  and  the  county  of  Sargans,  now 
included  in  the  new  canton  of  >S'^.  Gall.  The  inhabitants  of 
this  country  are  variously  estimated  at  from  75,000  to  96,000. 
The  languages  spoken  among  them  are  the  Swiss-German,  the 
Romansh,  or  Ladin,  being  a  mixture  of  Latin,  Italian,  and 
German,  and  a  dialect  of  the  Italians. 

At  the  time  of  the  Reformation,  this  country  was  a  con- 
federation of  three  leagues,  viz.,  the  Gray-league,  of  which 
Ilatitz  is  the  chief  town ;  the  league  of  the  House  of  God,  the 
capital  of  which,  and  of  the  whole  country,  is  Coire,  Coira,  or 
Chur ;  and  the  league  of  Ten  Jurisdictions,  the  chief  town  of 
which  is  Davos. 

"  The  origin  of  the  confederacy  of  the  Grisons  dates  from 

*  Hottiuger,  p.  132. 


444  HISTORY   OP   THE 

the  beginning  of  the  fifteenth  century,  when  the  chief  inhabit- 
ants of  the  various  communes  in  the  valleys  of  the  Upper 
Rhine,  weary  of  the  cruelties  and  oppressions  of  their  feudal 
lords,  assembled  in  a  forest  near  the  village  of  Trons,  and 
there  entered  into  a  solemn  compact  to  defend  each  other's 
property  and  persons,  and  to  oblige  their  lords  to  respect  the 
same.  The  abbot  of  Disentis  willingly  agreed  to  the  compact, 
the  counts  of  Werdenberg,  Sax,  and  Rhaezuns  followed  the 
example,  and,  in  the  month  of  May,  1424,  they  all  repaired 
to  the  village  of  Trons,  and  there,  under  a  large  maple-tree, 
swore,  in  the  name  of  the  Holy  Trinity,  to  observe  the  con- 
ditions of  the  league,  which  was  called  the  Gray-league, 
[(rrau-bund,)  from  their  being  dressed  in  gray  smock-frocks. 
The  maple-tree  at  Trons  still  existed  at  the  end  of  the  last 
century,  when  it  was  felled  during  the  French  invasion.  The 
valleys  of  Lower  Rhaetia,  near  Coire,  also  formed  themselves 
into  another  league,  with  the  consent  of  the  bishop  of  Coire, 
and  this  league  was  called  Oaddea,  a  corruption  of  Casa  Dei, 
i.  e.  the  House  of  God,  because  those  communities  were 
mostly  subject  to  the  bishop's  see.  A  third  league  was  formed, 
in  1436,  after  the  extinction  of  the  house  of  Tokkenburg, 
among  the  communes  of  Eastern  Rhaetia,  in  the  valleys  of 
the  Albula  and  the  Lanquart,  of  which  Davos  was  the  chief 
place." 

"  The  confederacy  is  divided  into  twenty-five  jurisdictions ; 
each  jurisdiction  appoints  its  own  magistrates,  and  makes  its 
own  laws  and  local  regulations,  by  the  consent  of  three-fourths 
of  its  citizens,  that  is  to  say,  of  all  above  the  age  of  seventeen 
years,  and  appoints  two  or  more  deputies  to  the  great  council, 
which  is  the  legislative  body  for  the  whole,  and  which,  again, 
sends  deputies  to  the  annual  Swiss  diet,  to  represent  the  can- 
ton. But  the  laws  enacted  by  the  great  council  are  subject 
to  the  approbation  of  the  various  jurisdictions.  The  little 
council,  of  three  members,  is  entrusted  with  the  execution  of 
the  laws,  and  with  measures  for  the  general  security." 

At  the  time  of  the  Reformation,  the  three  leagues  were  an 
independent  people,  in  alliance  with  the  Swiss  confederation. 


GERMAN  REFORMED  CHURCH.  445 

They  became  an  integral  part  of  it,  by  the  act  of  mediation, 
under  Bonaparte,  in  1803. 

A  llhaetian  history,  in  manuscript,  quoted  by  Hottinger, 
places  the  commencement  of  the  reformation  of  this  country 
in  1524  or  1525,  the  year  in  which  a  considerable  portion  of 
its  inhabitants  withdrew  from  the  communion  of  Rome.  This 
movement  began  in  the  league  of  the  Ten  Jurisdictions,  where 
the  towns  of  Flescli,  3Ialans,  Mayenfeld,  &c.  were  the  first 
that  received  the  pure  gospel ;  and,  from  these,  its  doctrine 
quickly  spread  over  the  communities  of  the  three  leagues.* 

Jacob  Burkli,  of  Zurich,  is  named,  by  some  authors,  as  the 
first  evangelical  preacher  in  these  Alpine  regions.  He  is 
placed  by  Hottinger  in  1521. f  Zwingle  himself  was  well 
known  among  the  Grisons,  and  had,  in  this  country,  both 
friends  and  enemies.  Among  the  former  were  Jacob  Salan- 
dronius  and  others,  with  whom  he  corresponded ;  of  the  latter 
were,  particularly,  the  pensioners  of  foreign  princes,  who  bore 
him  a  deadly  hatred,  and  sought  to  weaken  his  influence  by 
calumny  and  detraction ;  and  their  hostility  to  his  person 
made  them  equally  the  enemies  of  his  reformation. 

In  1522,  Jacob  Biveronius  rendered  important  service 
to  the  cause  of  the  Reformation,  by  his  labors  in  its  behalf 
in  Upper  Engadi,  in  the  valley  of  the  Inn,  particularly  by 
his  translation  of  the  gospels  into  the  dialect  of  the  inha- 
bitants.! 

The  principal  reformer  of  this  country  was  John  Comander, 
or  Dorfman,  pastor  of  the  church  of  St.  Martin's,  at  Coire. 
Though  not  the  first  among  his  brethren,  he  was  the  ablest, 
and,  like  St.  Paul  among  the  apostles,  wrought  more  abun- 
dantly than  they.  He  was  the  first  who  received  his  appoint- 
ment to  the  pastoral  care  from  the  council  of  the  city.  The 
general  council  of  the  three  leagues  had  decreed,  that  every 
pastor  should,  in  his  own  person,  perform  the  duties  of  his 
parish.  The  cathedral  dean  having  hitherto  been  the  titular 
pastor  of  St.  Martin's,  the  city  council  requested  him  to  per- 


*  Hottinger,  p.  209.  f  Ibid.  p.  64.  %  Ibid,  p.  64. 

2N 


446  HISTORY   OF   THE 

form  the  duties  of  his  pastorship,  agreeably  to  the  published 
ordinance  of  the  general  council.  This  incumbent,  however, 
■who  had  until  then  enjoyed  the  revenues  of  the  living,  shel- 
tered himself  under  the  pica  of  inability  to  undertake  the 
charge.  The  council,  thereupon,  invited  the  vicar  of  the 
cathedral-provost,  the  feudal  lord,  to  a  consultation  with  them 
respecting  the  mode  of  supplying  the  destitute  parish ;  but  the 
vicar  declined,  on  the  ground  that  he  had  no  instructions. 
The  parish  being  thus  abandoned  by  these  ecclesiastics  to 
negl^ect  and  destitution,  the  council  assumed  the  power  to 
make  provision  for  it,  and  appointed  Comander  to  preside 
over  the  famishing  flock.  He  died  among  his  people,  in 
1557,  after  a  ministry  of  more  than  thirty  years.  Long 
before  his  death,  incessant  application  to  study,  beside  his 
pastoral  labors,  had  impaired  his  sight,  but  did  not  diminish 
his  diligence.* 

Two  years  later,  in  1524,  upwards  of  forty  evangelical  men 
were  zealously  engaged  in  preaching  the  gospel  in  these  coun- 
tries, and  few  places  in  the  three  leagues  seem  to  have 
remained  destitute  of  its  benign  illumination. 

Among  the  devoted  men  who  laid  the  foundation  of  the 
Reformed  faith  in  the  G-risons,  beside  those  already  named, 
we  may  mention,  as  claiming  particular  notice,  Philip  Galitius, 
or  Salutius,  a  young  man  equally  distinguished  by  his  talents, 
his  labors,  and  his  sufferings,  and  endowed  with  a  singular 
faculty  for  the  communication  of  knowledge  to  his  hearers ; 
Bartholomew  Maturus,  of  Cremoyia,  in  Italy,  formerly  prior 
of  a  convent,  the  first  Italian  who  fled  his  country  for  the  Re- 
formed faith,  and  sought  an  asylum  among  the  Grisons :  he 
settled  at  Vicosoprano,  in  the  valley  of  the  3Iaira,  near  the 
border  of  Ohiavenna,  and  became  the  pastor  of  the  village : 
the  occasion  of  his  flight  and  of  his  conversion  was  false 
miracles  said  to  be  wrought  by  an  image  of  the  holy  virgin ; 
Peter  Brunner,  of  Ilantz,  and  Christian  Hartman,  who  might 
have  enjoyed  in  the  papacy  the  ease  and  delights  of  affluence, 

*  Hottinger,  p.  208,  209,  826. 


GERMAN  REFORMED  CHURCH.  447 

but  cbosc,  rather,  to  relinquish  the  pleasures  of  the  world  for 
the  excellency  of  the  knowledge  of  Christ ;  and,  lastly,  Samuel 
Frick,  pastor  of  Blayenfeld^  who  was  at  first  a  zealous  Papist, 
and  a  warm  adversary:  he  left  his  parish  and  repaired  to 
Rome,  to  seek  repose  near  the  see  of  St.  Peter,  and  to  lay 
before  the  sovereign  pontiff  his  impassioned  complaint  of  the 
obstinate  heresy  that  afflicted  his  people ;  but,  in  Rome,  and 
at  the  court  of  the  holy  father,  he  saw  what  he  had  not 
thought  of  in  the  rural  simplicity  of  Mdyenfeld:  he  saw 
iniquity  in  all  its  forms,  and  in  all  its  overflowings :  he  saw 
it  with  astonishment  and  pain ;  his  eyes  were  opened  while  his 
heart  was  grieved ;  he  returned  to  his  country  an  altered  man, 
espoused  the  cause  of  the  Reformation,  and  proclaimed  to  all 
that  Rortie  had  made  him  evangelical.* 

The  opponents  of  the  gospel  were  not  less  active  than  its 
promoters.  It  happened  as  the  Lord  had  predicted :  he 
"came  not  to  send  peace  on  earth,  but  a  sword."  Fierce 
resistance  was  made ;  tumults  arose  in  divers  places ;  many 
who  had  run  well  for  a  season,  turned  back  from  the  face  of 
danger ;  the  entire  district  of  Pretticjau  fell  from  the  true 
faith.  To  these  events  the  sect  of  the  Anabaptists  contributed 
their  full  share,  by  their  sweeping  denunciations,  their  wild 
extravagances,  and  the  reproach  and  doubt  which  were  thus 
brought  upon  the  fundamental  principles  of  the  Reformation, 
the  right  of  private  judgment  and  the  sufficiency  of  the  Scrip- 
tures as  the  rule  of  faith.  The  Papists  rejoiced  at  this  dis- 
order in  the  ranks  of  professed  reformers,  and  knew  how  to 
improve  it  to  the  advantage  of  their  cause. 

Toward  the  close  of  the  year  1525,  the  vicar-general  of  the 
bishop  of  Coire,  the  abbot  of  St.  Luke's,  and  the  cathedral- 
chapter,  conspired  for  the  ruin  of  Comander.  They  preferred 
charges  against  him  and  the  other  evangelical  preachers,  to 
the  council  of  the  three  leagues,  accusing  them  of  heresy, 
sedition,  contempt  of  the  sacraments,  &c.,  and  asked  that, 
inasmuch  as  these  men  were  rebels  against  the  church,  they 

*  Hottingcr,  p.  209. 


448  HISTORY   OF   THE 

should  be  dealt  •with  in  the  same  manner  as  rebels  against  the 
state.  Some  of  the  deputies,  knowing  the  character  of  Co- 
mander,  he  was  sent  for,  and  a  copy  of  the  charges  was  put 
into  his  hands.  He  appealed  to  an  order,  which,  it  seems, 
the  supreme  council  had  already  twice  published,  making  it 
the  duty  of  all  the  preachers  to  adhere  to  the  Holy  Scriptures 
as  the  rule  of  their  teaching,  and  declared  his  readiness  to 
prove  the  conformity  of  his  doctrine  to  that  standard,  in  a 
public  discussion,  in  the  presence  of  the  deputies,  assuring 
them,  at  the  same  time,  of  his  willingness  to  submit  if  he  were 
proved  to  be  in  error.  He  took  occasion,  also,  to  remark, 
that  he  and  his  fellow-laborers,  aware  that  the  gospel  was  not 
to  be  propagated  by  force  of  arms,  were  not  the  authors  of  the 
tumults  which  disturbed  the  public  tranquillity,  but  these  dis- 
orders were  to  be  attributed  to  their  enemies,  who  sought  by 
such  means  to  prevent  the  publication  of  the  truth.  The 
deputies  yielded  to  his  wishes  ;  the  seventh  day  of  January, 
1526,  was  appointed  for  the  proposed  discussion,  and  two  lay 
delegates  from  each  of  the  three  leagues  were  designated  to 
preside  at  the  meeting.  The  Papist  clergy  were  mortified  by 
this  decision,  and  the  abbot  thought  it  wholly  superfluous  that 
his  party  should  give  an  account  of  their  faith,  which  had 
subsisted,  he  said,  without  any  change,  during  fifteen  hundred 
years,  and  had  been  confirmed  by  the  blood  of  many  thousand 
martyrs.  He  could  not,  however,  dissuade  the  deputies  from 
their  purpose,  and  the  discussion  took  place  at  the  appointed 
time.  Ilantz  was  selected  as  the  place  of  meeting  for  the  con- 
test. Comander  had  published  eighteen  propositions,  embrac- 
ing the  chief  points  of  his  doctrine,  which  he  pledged  himself 
to  defend.  Every  exertion  was  made  by  the  Papist  leaders  to 
prevent  a  discussion  of  these  propositions.  The  first  day  was 
consumed  in  evasive  expedients,  and  the  same  arts  were  per- 
sisted in  with  provoking  pertinacity  on  the  next.  The  bishop's 
vicar,  seeing  Hofi"meister  and  Amman  of  Zurich  among  the 
attendants,  moved  that,  as  the  matter  concerned  natives  only, 
all  strangers  should  be  excluded.  Hofi"meister  remarked,  that 
Zurich  was  everywhere  charged  with  heresy,  yet  no  one  would 


GERMAN    REFORMED    CHURCH.  449 

accept  licr  invitation  to  come  and  convict  licr  of  the  charge. 
They  were  present,  therefore,  to  receive  information  from  the 
discussions  of  a  meeting  abroad ;  they  were  provided  with 
copies  of  the  Scriptures  in  the  original  Hebrew  and  Greek, 
in  order  that  no  violence  might  be  done  to  the  sacred  text ; 
if  permitted,  they  would  participate  in  the  discussions  ;  but  if 
their  presence  were  unacceptable,  they  would  withdraw.  The 
priest  of  Dinzen  observed.  If  Hebrew  and  Greek  had  never 
been  brought  into  the  land,  there  would  be  more  prosperity 
and  quu't,  and  so  many  errors  and  heresies  would  not  have 
sprung  up.  Bartlemi  von  Castelmur,  a  canon  of  Coire,  and 
•^^:^ii\  protonotarius,  thought  St.  Jerome  had  given  a  sufficient 
translation  of  the  Bible,  and  the  books  of  Jews  were  not 
needed.  The  strangers  were,  nevertheless,  allowed  to  remain 
as  auditors,  but  could  not  obtain  permission  to  take  a  part  in 
the  debates.  It  was  understood,  it  seems,  that  the  deputies 
would  not  continue  their  sittings  beyond  the  second  day,  and 
the  object  of  the  Papists  was  to  wear  out  the  time  by  all  man- 
ner of  extraneous  questions  and  irrelevant  speeches.  At 
length,  Comander,  raising  his  voice  above  the  rest,  amidst 
vehement  opposition,  read  his  first  proposition.  The  Christian 
church  is  begotten  of  the  word  of  Grod :  in  the  same  must  she 
abide,  and  not  hearken  to  the  voice  of  a  stranger,  and  pro- 
ceeded, with  imperturbable  collectedness,  to  sustain  it  by  a 
multitude  of  Scriptural  testimonies.  When  he  closed,  he 
challenged  a  reply  ;  but  no  reply  was  made  beside  a  few 
words  on  the  text,  Matthew  xvi.  18,  "  Thou  art  Peter,"  &c. 
The  article  was  admitted  to  be  orthodox,  and  the  course 
previously  pursued  Avas  resumed.  Ultimately,  however,  the 
abbot  of  St.  Luke's  took  up  the  subject  of  the  Lord's  supper 
and  the  mass.  He  opened  his  speech  with  an  expression  of  the ' 
sacred  horror  he  felt  in  handling  so  holy  a  subject,  and  the 
vicar  crossed  himself,  in  token  of  his  participation  of  the  same 
feelings.  The  saintly  prelate,  nevertheless,  dwelt  so  long 
upon  this  topic,  as  to  leave  no  time  for  a  reply.  When  he 
ended,  the  deputies  arose,  and  the  meeting  was  broken  up. 
Comander  entreated  and  protested  ;  but  neither  entreaties  nor 


450  GERMAN   REFORMED   CHURCH. 

protestations  could  prevail  to  procure  another  sitting.*  The 
consequences  of  this  meeting  Avere,  nevertheless,  favorable  to 
the  Reformation.  Seven  of  the  priests  were  added  to  the 
reformers,  popery  was  abolished  in  several  places,  both  forms 
of  faith  were  authorized,  the  power  of  the  bishops  and  abbots 
was  restricted  within  narrower  limits,  and  the  burdens  of  the 
people  were  diminished.f 

-'*  Acta  des  Gesprlichs,  &c.,  in  Fueslin,  vol.  i.  p.  337,  &c. 
f  Hottinger,  p.  287. 


BOOK  III. 

SECTION  IV.— SPREAD  OF  THE  REFORMATION  FROM 
BASEL,  BERN,  AND  STRASBURG. 


CHAPTER  I. 


THE  REFORMATION   IX  MUIILHAUSEN. 


The  city  of  dliiJilhaiisen,  or  Mulliausen,  is  situated  on  the 
111,  a  tributary  of  the  Rhine,  in  what  is  now  the  department 
of  Haut  IlJnn,  in  France,  but  was  anciently  Upper  Alsace. 
"  The  town  derived  its  name  from  a  mill  and  a  house  built 
upon  the  111  by  the  friars,  hermits  of  St.  Augustine.  In  the 
eighth  century,  it  is  noticed  as  a  village,  and,  from  12G8,  it 
ranked  as  a  free  imperial  city.  It  was  long  harassed  by  the 
dukes  of  Alsace,  whose  attacks  induced  the  inhabitants  to 
ally  themselves,  in  1466,  with  the  Swiss  cantons  of  Bern  and 
Soleure,  in  1506,  with  Basel,  and,  in  1515,  with  the  whole 
Helvetic  confederacy.  These  alliances  procured  to  the  towns- 
men peace  and  security;  and  M'dlilliausen,  with  its  small 
territory,  though  surrounded  on  every  side  by  France,  pre- 
served its  separate  existence  till  1798,  when  it  was  incorporated 
with  the  French  republic."  This  little  independent  state 
contained  about  8000  inhabitants ;  little,  indeed,  in  physical 
strength,  but  great  in  moral  courage. 

The   doctrine  of  the   Reformation  was   received  in  3Iiihl- 

hauscn,  probably,  from  Basel  and  Strashurg.     We   have   no 

information  of  the  commencement  of  evangelical  labors  in  this 

city,  but,  in  1523,  we  find  its  government  already  prepared 

for  a  change  in  the  form  of  public  worship.     In   this  year, 

Ulric  von  Ilutten,  coming  from  Basel  to  Miihlhausen  was 

451 


452  HISTORY   OF   THE 

consulted  by  tlie  government  and  the  evangelical  preachers  in 
relation  to  the  contemplated  reformation.  The  preachers, 
Jacob  Augsberger,  Otho  Binder,  and  the  Augustinian,  Ber- 
nard Roemer,  who  were  distinguished  among  their  brethren 
for  learning  and  piety,  in  obedience  to  the  wishes  of  the  rulers, 
submitted  a  plan  of  reformation,  which  was  adopted  on  the 
12th  of  March,  1523.  In  pursuance  of  this  plan,  the  singing 
of  German  psalms  superseded  the  Latin  service  in  the  choir, 
and  the  boys  were  taught  at  school  and  prepared  to  take  the 
jDlace  of  the  canons  in  this  part  of  worship ;  baptism  was 
administered  in  German ;  the  Lord's  supper  was  celebrated 
in  both  kinds ;  and  a  sermon,  with  prayer,  was  substituted  for 
the  early  mass.  Some  ecclesiastics  having  raised  an  outcry 
against  these  changes,  and  sought  to  create  disturbances  by 
seditious  preaching,  the  government  were  induced  to  publish 
a  mandate,  in  which  they  represented  to  their  people,  "  That 
every  Christian  is  bound  unconditionally  to  the  word  of  God, 
therein  to  expect  all  his  salvation,  and  to  it  to  conform  his 
whole  life  and  being.  Inasmuch  as  the  light  of  this  word  had 
recently  shone  with  more  brightness  than  in  former  times,  and 
evangelical  truth  had  been  more  lucidly  expounded,  they  ought 
to  be  unceasingly  thankful  to  their  Saviour,  Christ  Jesus, 
through  whom  they  had  received  this  grace."  "  We  esteem  it 
our  duty,"  said  they,  "  to  hold  fast  to  the  word  of  God,  and,  as 
far  as  possible,  to  promote  evangelical  truth  and  union  ;  where- 
fore it  is  our  will  that  all  our  preachers  preach  freely  and 
without  reserve  only  what  they  can  establish  by  the  Old  and 
New  Testaments,  and  in  such  a  manner  that  God  may  be 
honored,  the  people  edified,  and  brotherly  love  promoted." 
"If  any  one  think,"  they  add,  "that  another  preaches  what 
is  untrue,  unscriptural,  and  unchristian,  let  him  convince  the 
other  by  the  Holy  Scriptures,  that  his  error  may  be  manifest." 
This  was  the  extent  of  their  reformation  at  this  time ;  but, 
in  the  following  year,  the  compulsory  celibacy  of  the  clergy 
was  abolished  ;  clerics  were  compelled  to  put  away  their  para- 
mours, or  to  elevate  them  to  the  dignity  of  wives  by  the  rite 
of  marriage ;  licensed  brothels  were  suppressed,  and  the  pur- 


GERMAN   REFORMED   CnURCH.  453 

pose  was  declared  never  to  tolerate  them  again  in  all  future 
time.  The  supernumerary  and  useless  clerics  betook  them- 
selves to  other  employments  for  a  maintenance ;  the  mass  fell 
into  neglect,  and,  in  most  of  the  churches,  was  wholly  disused. 
"  Though  they  were  a  weak  state,"  says  the  historian  of 
3IiiJdhausen,  "surrounded  by  powerful  popish  zealots,  and 
separated  from  all  their  friends,  they  were  the  first  in  the 
confederacy,  and  in  almost  all  Germany,  who  had  dared  to 
abolish  the  fearful  idol  whom  all  Christendom  had  worshipped, 
as  well  as  all  other  errors  which  the  papal  power  had  imposed 
upon  the  churches."*  The  images  of  Christ  and  the  saints, 
however,  though  the  worship  of  them  ceased,  were  still 
tolerated,  as  they  were  in  all  the  churches  of  Crermany,  from 
a  prudent  regard  to  circumstances :  and  the  abolition  of  the 
mass  seems  to  have  been  effected  rather  by  a  general  silent 
consent,  than  by  any  public  act ;  for  the  popish  confederates 
seem  not  to  have  been  apprized  of  the  fact,  so  late  as  Decem- 
ber, 1525,  as  appears  from  their  letter  of  that  date,  addressed 
to  the  government  and  people  of  Bienne.  In  that  letter,  they 
complain  of  the  abrogation  of  the  mass  in  Bienne,  and  remark : 
"In  no  other  place  in  our  confederacy,  one  excepted,  has  such 
a  change  in  the  order  and  appointments  of  the  Christian 
church  taken  place. "f  That  one  place,  to  which  they  allude, 
was  Zurieh,  where  the  mass  had  been  abolished  at  the  Easter- 
festival  of  the  same  year.  The  truth  seems  to  be,  that  the 
plan  of  reformation  adopted  in  1523  introduced  the  celebra- 
tion of  the  Lord's  supper  without  formally  abrogating  the 
mass ;  and  the  latter  fell  gradually  into  neglect,  until  it  was 
Avholly  though  silently  superseded  by  the  former,  without  being 
prohibited,  in  the  course  of  another  year.  The  confederates, 
howevei*,  were  not  ignorant  that  3IuJilhausen  was  fallen  into 
what  they  esteemed  gross  heretical  pravity ;  and  they  did  not 
omit  to  communicate  their  displeasure,  and  to  apply  their 
expostulations  here,  as  well  as  elsewhere ;  and  with  the  same 
result.^ 

*  Hettinger,  p.  118, 160.       f  Fueslin,  vol.  ii.  p.  299.       |  Hottingcr,  p.  195. 


454  HISTORY   OF   THE 


CHAPTER  11. 

THE   CITY  AND  TERRITORY  OF   BIENNE,   OR  BIEL. 

The  city  of  Bienne,  in  German,  Bid,  is  situated  on  the 
lake  of  the  same  name,  in  the  ancient  seigniory  of  the  bishop 
of  Basel,  "which,  since  1815,  is  incorporated  with  the  canton 
oTBern,  as  a  compensation  for  Aargau  and  the  Pays  de  Vaucl. 
In  the  sixteenth  century,  it  Avas  a  free  city,  in  alliance  with 
the  Swiss  confederacy,  but  more  intimately  with  the  canton 
of  Bern.  It  acknowledged  the  bishop  of  Basel  as  its  feudal 
lord,  but  was  governed  by  its  mayor  and  council,  and  possessed 
important  political  rights,  with  which  the  bishop  could  not  in- 
terfere. In  spiritual  things,  it  was  subject  to  the  bishop  of 
Lausanne.  The  abbot  of  the  monastery  of  St.  John,  situated 
at  the  head  of  the  lake,  had  formerly  enjoyed  the  right  of 
collation  to  the  parish  church,  and  from  him  the  city  had 
purchased  the  privilege  of  choosing  its  pastor.* 

Bienne  has  the  honor  of  being  the  birthplace  of  Thomas 
Wittenbach,  the  venerated  teacher  of  Zwingle  and  Leo  Juda 
in  theology.  Wittenbach  was  familiar  with  all  the  learning 
of  his  times  :  and  he  was  more  :  he  was  an  original  thinker  :  he 
struck  out  his  own  path  in  the  investigation  of  truth,  and  saw 
and  pointed  out  to  his  pupils  many  things  which  they  after- 
wards published  to  the  world.  But  Wittenbach  was  not  a  re- 
former :  he  wanted  the  moral  courage  to  begin ;  he  might 
follow  in  the  path  of  another,  but  was  not  qualified  to  lead  the 
way :  it  was  not  until  Zwingle 's  activity  had  aroused  him,  and 
kindled  a  holy  fire  at  his  heart,  that  he  could  resolve  to  step 
forward  boldly,  to  declare  the  whole  truth  in  the  face  of  dan- 
ger, and  to  renounce  all  things  for  the  sake  of  Christ.  He 
became  kirchherr,  pastor,*  or  rector,  of  the  parish  church  of 

*  Fueslin,  vol.  ii.  p.  267. 


GERMAN   REFORMED    CHURCH.  455 

his  native  city,  in  1515.*  In  1523,  he  began  his  public  op- 
position to  the  corruptions  of  the  church,  by  exposing  the 
iniquity  of  private  masses  that  -were  said  by  the  priest  for  the 
absent  a^ncl  the  dead,  and  denouncing  the  interdiction  of  mar- 
riage to  the  clergy :  and  this  testimony  he  folloAvcd  by  omit- 
ting those  masses  and,  with  seven  other  priests,  enterino'  into 
the  bonds  of  wedlock. f  It  is  remarkable  that  a  man  like 
Wittenbach,  who,  as  early  as  1505,  taught  his  pupils  that 
Christ  is  the  only  propitiation  for  sin,  and  that  popish  indul- 
gences are  worthless ;  who,  moreover,  anticipated  the  down- 
fall of  the  scholastic  theology,  and  a  return  to  the  doctrine  of 
the  Holy  Scriptures,  should  begin  his  public  opposition  to  the 
corruptions  of  the  church  at  so  late  a  period,  and,  during 
eighteen  years,  and,  especially,  during  all  the  time  of  his  pas- 
torship, prior  to  the  year  1523,  should  close  his  lips  upon  this 
subject.  His  conduct  illustrates  the  difficulties  and  the  dan- 
gers which  a  thoughtful  and  prudent  man  saw  before  him,  and 
which  no  ordinary  zeal  for  truth  was  prepared  to  encounter. 
He  was  not,  indeed,  wholly  silent :  his  convictions  were  im- 
parted to  his  students ;  and,  on  one  occasion,  he  exposed  the 
imposture  of  indulgences  in  a  disputation  which  he  had  in  the 
university.  But  he  did  not  address  such  things  to  the  people ; 
and,  in  the  universities,  many  things  were  said  by  the  learned 
which  they  would  not  have  been  suffered  to  say  in  the  pulpit, 
or  in  their  writings,  to  the  common  people.  We  have  no  good 
reason,  however,  to  believe  that  he  taught  in  his  ministry  what 
he  knew  to  be  false.  He,  doubtless,  pursued  a  course  similar 
to  that  of  Zwingle,  in  Glarus,  prior  to  the  year  1516 ;  he 
preached  what  he  held  to  be  the  truth,  so  far  as  the  hearers 
were  able  to  bear  it,  and  was  silent  on  other  topics,  waiting 
for  a  more  convenient  season. 

Wittenbach  Avas  supported  in  his  new  measures  by  some  of 
the  citizens,  but  the  most  influential  of  the  council,  and,  espe- 
cially, the  town-clerk,  Lewis  Sterner,  were  in  zealous  opposi- 
tion.    Sterner  and  his  party  reported  him  to  a  diet  of  the  ten 

*  Hottinger,  p.  47.  f  Fueslin,  vol.  ii.  p.  268. 


456  HISTORY   OF   THE 

cantons  assembled  at  Zug,  in  July,  1524,  and  solicited  their 
interference ;  and  the  diet,  full  of  zeal  against  heresy,  ad- 
dressed to  the  government  of  Bicnnc  a  solemn  remonstrance, 
in  which  they  say,  "  We  have  this  day  learned  of  grievous 
things  -which  you  suffer  to  be  done  in  your  domain.  Truly, 
we  would  not  have  expected  this  of  you :  for  we  hear  that  you 
suffer  your  priests  to  take  wives,  and  cohabit  with  them,  and 
still  to  retain  their  benefices ;  which  appears  to  us  unchristian 
and  wrong.  Especially  does  it  seem  to  us,  beloved  and  good 
friends,  that  such  things  weaken  and  break  down  Christian 
faith  and  order.  You  should,  therefore,  not  endure  them,  but 
consider  that  we,  confederates  of  the  ten  cantons,  have  devoted 
much  pains,  labor,  and  expense,  and  still  do  the  same,  to  sup- 
press such  Lutheran  and  Zwinglian  faith,  and  will,  to  this 
end,  devote  our  honor,  life,  property,  and  whatsoever  God 
has  given  us.  Therefore,  upright,  pious,  and  wise  sirs,  and 
particularly  good  friends,  we  beseech  you,  in  kindness  and 
good  will,  to  refrain  from,  and  not  to  allow  such  things  to  your 
priests,  but  to  take  their  benefices  from  them,  and.  to  bestow 
the  same  on  others,  pious  priests,  whom  you  may,  doubtless, 
still  find."*  Contradictory  statements  being  made  respecting 
the  course  which  the  government  of  Bern  had  pursued  toward 
the  married  priests  of  their  canton,  a  messenger  was  despatched 
to  that  city  for  information,  and  copies  were  obtained  of  their 
mandates  of  April  and  May,  in  the  same  year.  These  were 
now  adopted  and  published  in  Bienne,  and  the  offending 
priests  were  expelled  from  their  livings. 

Wittenbach  submitted  to  the  council^  in  behalf  of  himself 
and  his  associates,  a  written  defence  of  their  conduct,  and 
challenged  an  investigation  of  its  character  on  the  basis  of 
the  Holy  Scriptures,  which  these  mandates  recognised  as  the 
standard  of  public  instruction  and  the  rule  of  faith  and  prac- 
tice. His  appeal  was  ineffectual.  All  that  could  be  obtained 
was  permission  to  continue  his  ministry  in  the  pastorate  a 
month  longer.     At  the  expiration  of  the  month,  his  church 

*  Fueslin,  vol.  ii.  p.  273.     Hottinger,  p.  1G7. 


GERMAN    REFORMED    CHURCH.  457 

was  closed,  and  lie  was  left  to  provide  as  he  best  could  for 
his  daily  wants.  He  persisted,  nevertheless,  in  his  labors. 
The  convent-chapel  being  opened  to  him,  he  ministered  there 
with  as  good  effect  as  before  in  the  parish  church,  and  many 
of  his  adversaries  were  won  over  by  his  personal  attentions 
and  his  affectionate  expostulations  with  them  in  private.* 

After  Wittenbach's  removal  from  the  pastorship,  the  coun- 
cil applied  to  the  government  of  Bern  for  a  successor,  and 
the  party  of  Sterner  made  application  for  the  same  purpose 
to  the  bishop  of  Basel.  Who  his  successor  was  is  unknown  ; 
but  the  doctrine  of  the  Reformation  made  new  advances  daily, 
and  its  continued  progress  in  Bern  added  much  to  its  popu- 
larity here. 

The  government  became  alarmed,  and,  fearing  a  revolution 
in  the  state,  exacted  from  the  people  a  new  oath  of  allegiance. 
The  citizens  hesitated,  and  the  fears  of  government  grew.  A 
meeting  of  the  people  was  thereupon  held,  and  a  committee 
appointed,  who  drew  up  a  memorial  expressing  the  sentiments 
of  their  constituents,  which  they  presented  to  the  council  in 
the  week  before  Whitsuntide  in  the  following  year,  (1525.) 
In  their  memorial,  they  deprecated  the  consequences  of  a  dis- 
sension between  the  rulers  and  the  citizens,  and,  with  strong 
professions  of  loyalty,  stated  the  wishes  of  the  latter,  in  six 
articles,  to  which  they  respectfully  asked  the  consent  of  the 
council.     In  these  articles,  they  solicit — 

First.  That  the  word  of  God  of  the  Old  and  New  Testa- 
ments be  preserved  and  preached  to  them  unadulterated  and 
pure,  and  that  no  one  should  revile,  blaspheme,  or  contradict 
it,  but  all  should  acknowledge  it  to  be  true,  righteous,  and  suf- 
ficient unto  salvation. 

Secondly.  That  a  pastor  or  rector  be  always  chosen  by  a 
majority  of  votes,  and  removable,  also,  in  the  same  way,  if  he 
should  not  demean  himself  in  a  Christian  and  worthy  manner. 

Tliinllij.  That  Dr.  Thomas  Wittenbach  be  permitted  to 
preach  to  them  in  the  upper  church  on  the  afternoon  of  Sun- 

*  Hottinger,  p.  1C7.     FuesUn,  vol.  ii.  p.  274. 
2  0  58 


458  HISTORY   OF   THE 

days,  or  other  holidays,  and  a  suitable  provision  be  made  for 
him  out  of  the  revenues  of  the  church. 

Fourth.  That  a  suitable  schoolmaster  be  appointed  and 
provided  for  in  like  manner. 

-     Fifth.  That  drunkenness,  gambling,  and  dancing  on   the 
Lord's  day,  be  interdicted. 

Sixth.  That  the  celebration  of  the  anniversaries  of  saints 
be  left  to  the  free  election  of  each  individual,  and  all  things 
be  transacted  in  conformity  with  the  divine  word.* 

The  memorial  was  well  received.  The  government  were 
convinced  of  the  uprightness  and  loyalty  of  the  adherents  of 
the  new  doctrine,  and,  which  probably  made  the  deeper  im- 
pression, they  saw  that  these  already  constituted  the  chief 
part  of  the  community.  They  now  took  the  Reformed  faith 
and  its  preachers  under  their  protection,  vindicated  them 
from  the  charge  of  heresy,  and  accused  their  secretary  to  the 
bishop  of  Basel,  their  feudal  lord,  as  the  author  of  the  recent 
disturbances. 

The  confederates,  in  a  diet  at  Luzern,  in  November,  ad- 
dressed themselves  by  a  pressing  missive  to  the  bishop,  urging 
him  to  reclaim  his  subjects  oi  Bienne  from  their  heresy.  The 
bishop  transmitted  their  letter  to  the  council,  together  with  a 
solemn  admonition  from  himself.  Much  alarm  was  created 
at  Bienne  by  the  earnest  tone  of  these  letters.  Sterner  was 
charged  as  the  instigator  of  these  troubles.  The  secretary 
was  terrified :  he  feigned  extreme  illness,  and  had  a  priest 
brought  to  administer  the  last  consolations  of  his  religion  to 
him  as  a  dying  man ;  but  at  night  he  arose  and  fled ;  and 
after  skulking  several  days  in  lonely  places  to  avoid  an 
apprehended  capture,  while  no  one  sought  him,  he  escaped  at 
length  to  Porentrui,  and  implored  the  bishop's  protection. 
He  was  sent  back,  and  resumed  his  office  unharmed. 

In  their  perplexity,  the  government  sought  counsel  of  Bern, 
and,  in  pursuance  of  advice  from  that  canton,  despatched  an 
embassy  to  the  same  diet,  to  complain  of  the  injustice  done 

*  Fueslin,  p.  286,  &c. 


GERMAN   REFORMED    CHURCH.  459 

them  in  denouncing  them  as  heretics,  than  which  nothing  was 
more  odious,  and  to  purge  them  of  that  hateful  imputation. 
They  placed  their  justification  in  the  consciousness  of  a  sin- 
cere desire  to  believe  and  to  act  only  as  all  Christians  ou^ht  to 
do,  and  in  the  conformity  of  the  course  they  had  pursued  with 
the  word  of  God,  and  with  the  mandates  of  Bern,  which  they 
considered  as  being  in  harmony  with  that  rule.*  Their 
intelligence  of  the  sacred  volume  was  sadly  deficient  if  they 
thought  the  Bernese  mandates  in  all  respects  conformable  to 
it :  it  was,  however,  not  more  so  than  that  of  the  authors  of 
these  acts,  who  had  first  adopted  the  Holy  Scripture  as  their 
basis,  and  then  built  their  mandates  upon  it :  the  correspond- 
ence of  the  two  was  presumed,  because  the  profoundest 
respect  was  entertained  for  the  rulers  of  Bern. 

The  answer  of  the  diet  sheds  some  light  upon  the  progress 
which  the  Reformation  had  made  in  Bienne  before  the  close 
of  the  year.f  "  Although  we  do  not  consider  them  all  here- 
tics," say  they,  "but  believe  there  are  yet  many  good  old 
Christians,  and  many  more  of  them  than  of  Lutherans,  yet 
their  proceedings  are  unchristian.  The  holy  sacraments  and 
the  holy  mass  are  despised,  and  are  no  longer  observed  agree- 
ably to  the  order  of  the  Christian  church  :  and,  although  they 
boast  that  they  have  lived  conformably  to  the  mandates  of 
Bern,  we  cannot  perceive  that  our  confederates  of  Bern  have 
done  like  those  of  Bid  ;  for  at  Bern  the  holy  sacraments  and 
the  holy  mass  have  not  been  abolished,  and  Christian  order 
and  appointment  are  there  observed  and  practised  as  they 
have  been  from  ancient  times  :  but  it  is  otherwise  at  Biel, 
where  the  holy  mass  is  no  longer  observed,  the  Salve,  also,  of 
our  beloved  Lady  is  laid  aside,  and  other  unchristian  things  are 
done.  What  displeases  us  most,  is  that  those  of  Biel  have  in 
these  things  run  ahead  of  others,  and  have  not  considered  the 
good  done  by  our  forefathers  and  their  forefathers,  and  which 
we  confederates  are  still  doing,  and  may  further  do :  for,  in 
no  other  place  of  our  confederacy,  one  excepted,  has  such  a 


*  Fueslin,  vol.  ii.  p.  289-297.  f  Its  date  is  December  8,  1525. 


460  HISTORY   OF  THE 

change  in  the  order  and  usage  of  the  Christian  church  taken 
place  as  at  Biel. — As  it  is  now  manifest  that  this  evil  emanates 
from  the  scandalous  and  infamous  Lutheran  or  Zwinglian  sect, 
and  from  the  heretical  priests  and  preachers  who  adhere  to 
it ;  who  seduce  the  common  people  so  scandalously  and  inju- 
riously, and  ruin  them  in  body  and  soul ;  it  is  our  chief  and 
earnest  desire  and  request  to  those  of  Biel,  that  they  repudiate 
such  Lutheran,  heretical  priests,  expel  them,  and  no  longer 
suffer  them  to  preach ;  that  they  again  receive  the  holy 
sacraments  and  the  holy  mass,  and  all  other  Christian  ordi- 
nances and  usages ;  and  that  they  demean  themselves  like 
their  ancestors  when  they  came  to  our  ancestors,  and  be  like 
the  majority  of  the  states  of  the  confederacy.  A  greater 
pleasure  they  cannot  give  to  our  superiors  and  to  us ;  and  we 
shall  be  ready  to  reciprocate  it  in  the  kindest  manner  :  but, 
if  they  persist  in  their  false  belief  and  practice,  neither  our 
superiors  nor  we  can  endure  it,  but  will  consider  what  can  be 
further  done,"  &c.* 

Such  was  the  religious  logic  of  the  representatives  of  free 
republican  states  under  the  influence  of  Romanism.  No  inti- 
mation is  given  that  the  changes  which  had  been  introduced 
at  Bienne  were  at  variance  with  the  Holy  Scripture.  It  was 
enough  that  they  were  departures  from  the  existing  ordinances 
and  usages  of  the  church ;  and  for  this  reason  only  they  were 
not  to  be  endured,  if  these  republicans  could  find  any  means 
to  suppress  them. 

The  statements  of  this  document  are,  perhaps,  to  be  received 
with  some  allowance,  but  they  prove,  at  least,  that  very  con- 
siderable changes  had  already  been  made  in  the  forms  of  wor- 
ship in  the  churches  of  Bienne.  The  mass  and  other  Papist 
sacraments,  as  well  as  the  Salve  of  the  virgin,  had  been  abo- 
lished, or,  at  least,  neglected  and  disused ;  and  baptism  was  so 
divested  of  its  previous  form  as  to  amount,  in  the  estimation 
of  zealous  Papists,  to  an  abolition. 

At  the  commencement  of  the  year  1526,  Bienne  was  dis- 

*  Fueslin,  vol.  ii.  p.  298,  &c. 


^f°pt«"°"77.']  GERMAN   REFORMED    CHURCH.  461 

turbed  witli  violent  religious  disputes,  -which  ^vere,  hovrever, 
composed  by  the  friendly  interposition  of  Bern.  From  this 
time  she  was  spared  from  further  annoyance  by  the  Papist 
confederates,  who  were  sufficiently  occupied  with  Zurich,  and 
with  plans  and  exertions  to  unite  the  other  states  of  the  con- 
federacy in  a  combination  against  her ;  for  they  rightly  judged 
that,  unless  the  fountain  of  the  heresy  were  stopped,  the 
remote  streams  Avould  continue  to  flow,  in  defiance  of  all  their 
efforts  to  restrain  them.*  In  the  mean  time,  Thomas  Witten- 
bach  had  been  reinstated  in  the  rectorship  of  the  parish 
church.  He  died  about  the  close  of  the  year  1526.  On  his 
death-bed,  he  called  the  council  to  his  side,  and  observing  to 
them  that  he  was  soon  to  appear  before  God  to  give  an  account 
of  his  ministry,  he  affirmed  once  more  that  he  had  taught 
them  the  true  doctrine  of  the  gospel,  exhorted  them  to  abide 
therein  at  all  hazards,  and  assured  them  that  they  would 
thus  obtain  eternal  life.f 

*  Fueslin,  vol.  ii.  p.  301,  302.  f  Ibid.  p.  304.   Hottinger,  p.  338. 


END   OF   VOL.   I. 


8TERS0TTPED  BT  L.  JOHNSON  IKD  00. 
PniLADELPUJA. 


^Y-^l 


"    ■   T>.  I  ill 


